By Urita Dokle
TIRANA, June 16 – Albanian political leaders have until the end of June to approve the judicial reform. However as the deadline approaches, parties are far more divided than before. On Tuesday the ad hoc commission on justice reform approved the package regardless of the opposition’s boycott. Members of the ruling majority approved justice reform draft constitutional amendments but not the article on reserved seats, a highly disputable topic between the ruling majority and the opposition. The deputy chairman of the ad hoc commission on justice reform, Oerd Bylykbashi underlined that the opposition wants nothing more than the implementation of recommendation 88 of the Venice Commission and that is not willing to settle for less. According to Bylykbashi the commission’s approval of the package is a violation of the Constitution and of negotiations.
“Political negotiations cannot be done with pistols in our hands,” he said. In the meantime, the ruling Socialist Party chairman of the commission Fatmir Xhafaj praised the preliminary conclusion of talks that have lasted 18 months as well as the contribution of foreign and domestic experts. However “there is one article of the law that is still being discussed. 99% of the project is a done deal,” Xhafaj concluded. The meeting of the ad hoc commission was attended by U.S. Ambassador Donald Lu and EU Ambassador Romana Vlahutin.
U.S. hail approval
The U.S. Embassy in Tirana praised the passing of the judicial reform package, describing it “an important step in paving the way toward the full passage of a deep and meaningful reform of Albania’s justice system. “The United States welcomes the approval of the draft constitutional amendments by the Albanian Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Reform. This package of draft amendments has the full support the United States and the European Union. We encourage dialogue between the government and the opposition to resolve the final remaining issue of disagreement and we urge all members of parliament to vote in favor of this reform. A vote for this reform is a vote in favor of moving Albania forward on its path towards EU integration and a stronger Euro-Atlantic future,” according to a statement.
‘Recommendation 88’ dispute
The drafting of the justice reform has involved experts from the United States of America and European Union. The process has also been reviewed by the Venice Commission, a body of legal experts with the Council of Europe human rights group who have provided their opinion on draft constitutional amendments on Albania’s judiciary. Political parties in Albania fail to agree on ‘Recommendation 88’ of the Venice Commission which stipulates that if “the parties to the political process do not agree on the qualified majority required to elect lay members of the High Judicial Council, High Prosecutorial Council,, Independent Qualification Commissions and Specialised Qualification Chamber, they may opt for a proportionate system guaranteeing the opposition a representation within those collective bodies, or any other appropriate model which would secure the opposition a certain influence in the election process.” This recommendation means that the opposition must be represented in the appointment of these candidacies, while it proposes a certain appointment formula and suggests the application of others with the sole condition that they guarantee the real participation of the opposition in the appointment process. The so-called mechanism of “reserved seats” guarantees that the members of the four institutions mentioned above must have their seats reserved in a proportional manner between the ruling majority and the opposition. This means that some of the members must be appointed from the candidates suggested by the ruling majority and some by the opposition based on their representation in parliament.
Take the example of the High Judicial Council. The HJC is composed of 5 lay members and 6 judicial members, the former elected by the Parliament while the latter elected by their peers – judges. The five lay members are to be elected by a qualified majority of 3/5th of the votes. The parliamentary opposition has criticized these proposals as permitting the government to appoint its own people to these positions and thereby to “capture the judicial system” , since at present the majority has slightly more than 60 percent of the seats in Parliament. The opposition has proposed instead that these appointments should require a two-thirds majority in the Parliament.
Meanwhile the ruling majority suggests that members must be elected from five different groups of judicial experts outside the judicial system such as attorneys at law, notary, law professors, non-judge professors at the Magistrate School and from civil society which means that the appointment is practically done outside the parliament which represents a rare case in western countries. In summary, the ruling Socialists do not want any party appointees, while the Democrats want to limit government overreach.
The opposition Democratic Party parliamentary group warned this week that they would support the approval of the draft constitutional amendments of the justice reform only if the recommendation 88 of the Venice Commission is adopted and implemented fully. The Democrats have accused the ruling majority of trying to “capture the judiciary system.” “If recommendation 88 is not implemented than we would hand over our justice system to the hands of Edi Rama” Democratic Party said in a statement warning that if these requests are not met, the opposition will not vote in favor of the reform
PM rejects ‘reserved seats”
Prime Minister Edi Rama reiterated this week that the ruling majority will not accept the Democratic Party request on reserved seats. “I regret the fact that on Monday, the DP chairman lied saying that I accepted ‘reserved seats’. In fact, we have not accepted and do not accept ‘reserved seats’, but we are ready to find a substantial solution with the opposition about the appointments of the members of the High Council of Judiciary and High Council of Prosecution, which will be voted by the Parliament,” Rama said.
The Prime Minister claimed that the vetting of judges and prosecutors has become a nightmare for the opposition because there are many of them who have profited from ties with Democrats. “Without the vetting process, without expelling prosecutors and judges who have become fat with the money of corruption, it would not be a judicial reform,” Rama concluded.
SMI calls for consensus
Chairman of Socialist Movement for Integration and Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta, said this week the third largest political force is willing to vote any accord between Socialist Party (SP) and Democratic Party (DP) about their recent dispute on recommendation 88. Meta encouraged both political parties to find consensus based on Venice Commission standards. He insisted that the rights of the opposition must be taken into account but hinted that if Democrats would change their position and give another pretext not to vote the reform, then the people would know that they want to block the process.
Albania’s parliament needs a two-thirds majority to approve the reform. The ruling majority does not have the numbers and the approval of the reform cannot be achieved without the opposition Democrats.
