TIRANA, Feb. 10, 2022 – Albania’s parliament approved Thursday a constitutional amendment that makes it possible to extend the mandates of two key justice reform bodies.
With 118 votes in favor out of 140, the changes were approved through a majority well above the needed threshold as many opposition MPs joined their votes with the ruling Socialist Party.
The vote came after strong pressure by internationals – the United States and the European Union in particular – urging the Albanian opposition to vote the changes proposed by the ruling Socialists.
The opposition has been critical of the way the justice reform has been implemented over the years. And, until the day of the vote, the Democratic Party’s faction led by Lulzim Basha had not said which way it would vote. It ultimately decided to support the changes.
Basha said what Albanians see “today is not the justice we want” but there was a need to continue the process “so the European integration of the country would not be interrupted.”
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who leads another faction of the Democratic Party, which did not vote for the changes, said Basha was using the parliament “for hypocrisy and deception of Albanian citizens.”
Another opposition party which has aligned with Berisha, the Socialist Movement for Integration, logged in abstentions on the constitutional amendment.
All key international actors issued statements welcoming the constitutional changes.
The U.S. embassy said it “was an important step forward for all Albanians, towards a stronger, more credible justice system and towards European integration.
The EU Delegation said the Albanian parliament “showed strong cross-party determination to move forward towards EU membership.”
The ruling Socialist Party proposed the amendment of the Constitution again to allow for an extension of the Independent Qualification Commission’s and public commissioners’ mandates until the end of 2024.
The deadline for the work of these two institutions was June 2022, and it is expected that at least 30 percent of judges and prosecutors will have not completed the re-evaluation procedure by then.
The slow progress of the justice reform – which was approved with full political consensus nearly six years ago – has worried many because the vetting process paralyzed justice institutions, including the Constitutional Court, for years, critics say, giving the ruling Socialist Party unchecked powers.
However, in recent months, the Constitutional Court has finally been able to assemble a quorum to hear cases, and some of the new justice reform bodies have begun to look into hundreds of cases involving high-level corruption, creating a momentum that has led to new investigations and arrests.
