TIRANA, Sept. 30 – The parliamentary commission in charge of the judicial reform has made known it will take the draft of the reform to the Venice Commission to be checked before it goes back to the parliament for approval.
There have been at least two drafts. One has been prepared by the commission itself, also supported, and led in fact, by two international experts, one German (of the European Union) and the other American (from Washington).
That draft law was basically prepared only by the commission left-wing members together with a group of experts. The opposition members almost did not take part at all in meetings. They did not approve the draft prepared by the commission under the supervision of the international experts.
The other draft comes from the main opposition Democratic Party. After boycotting most of the work of the parliamentary commission, in the end it refused to agree with its draft and prepared its own with some 300 amendments — including changing the constitution.
At the end the commission, agreed to take both drafts to the Venice Commission for review.
That may take about two months, according to a Council of Europe official, who also added that the Venice Commission is an advising institution and not an imposing one.
Experts believe the draft that gets the green light by the Venice Commission experts is more likely to pass.
Changing the image of the judiciary is a key step in Albania’s road toward the European Union. That has been made so clear. Common Albanians also need to regain their trust in the justice officials, also a very hard effort.
But passing the reform may serve to the country to get into the other integration step with the EU that of launching full membership talks.
