TIRANA, June 28 – In an indication that it will not tolerate any hindrance to the approval of the justice reform, the country’s third largest party and junior ally of the ruling Socialists, the Socialist Movement for Integration has decided to expel a sitting MP for contesting the involvement of the international community in the vetting process of judges and prosecutors as suggested in the justice reform draft.
Petrit Vasili, the deputy chairman of the junior ruling coalition partner, said Monday the views expressed by MP Perparim Spahiu were personal, and that the SMI has a unified stance on the reform.
“The Socialist Movement for Integration parliamentary group decided to expel the SMI MP from the party due to repeated personal viewpoints which are not in harmony with the decisions of the SMI’s parliamentary group. Spahiu’s point of view on the judicial reform were wrong, hasty, and in complete contradiction with the SMI’s position for justice reform. The SMI believes that the justice reform is extremely important to strengthen the rule of law and speed up Albania’s EU accession. The reform is also directly related to national security as it aims to make Albania a factor of stability in the region,” Vasili said.
“The Socialist Movement for Integration will continue to work hard for the adoption of the judicial reform in a transparent and constructive way, according to standards set by the Venice Commission,” he added.
Earlier this week, MP Perparim Spahiu addressed the issue of Albania’s sovereignty and hinted that if the vetting process recommended in the justice reform draft is guided by the internationals, then it would be a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
“I fully understand that we share our sovereignty with NATO, the Council of Europe and hopefully with European Union. However I am not ready to vote in favor of sharing our sovereignty of the International Monitoring Operation,” he wrote in posts on social networks, underlining that the internationals cannot do the vetting process in Albania.
Reacting to the SMI decision later on Monday, Spahiu surprisingly said “his vote will remain with the SMI despite the parliamentary group’s decision.”
The Socialist Movement for Integration, which has emerged as a kingmaker in the past two general elections, has some 20 MPs in the 140-seat Parliament.
A similar approach was embraced by former Prime Minister Sali Berisha who disagreed with the role that internationals have engaged in the reform. According to Berisha, the internationals can only act as observers and nothing more. Under the draft constitutional amendments approved in principle by the ruling majority, the International Monitoring Operation is led by the European Commission and will have the competences to monitor and oversee the entire process of the re-evaluation of nominees for committee members, judges and prosecutors.
Observers will be entitled to immediately access all information, people and documents necessary to monitor the re-evaluation at all levels and in all stages. Furthermore, the observers will issue recommendations to the Ombudsman concerning the qualification and selection of the candidates for various positions. The justice reform is one of the main preconditions required by the EU Commission to pave the way for the Albania’s accession talks after the country was granted EU candidate status in mid-2014..
