TIRANA, April 7 – Parliament will decide next Thursday whether the Constitutional Court will review the validity of mandates for two Socialist MPs, whom the opposition accuses of having exploited their position to gain access to public funds.
The respecting of Constitutional Court rulings was a key condition set by the opposition on the justice reform, which brought a deadlock in the negotiations on the most important reform in the country.
If parliament decides next week to send the matter to the Constitutional Court, it would technically mean that the opposition’s condition for resuming talks on justice reform will be fulfilled, hence the process is expected to restart in case of a positive vote by the chamber.
It appears that once again the international factor has been decisive in overcoming differences between camps with local media stating that it was a new round of negotiations by U.S ambassador in Tirana Donald Lu that made possible an agreement between the majority and the opposition on the issue.
After two long hours of discussions, the chairman’s conference agreed to send the opposition Democrats’ request for approval to the chamber for voting next Thursday.
The two Socialist MPs had previously asked their parliamentary group that their mandates are sent to the Constitutional Court, a stance they maintained in Parliament’s session on Thursday.
“It is simply a pretext to hamper the justice reform. I have decided to ask majority representatives to vote for sending my mandate to the Constitutional Court so that the opposition will no longer have excuses,” Rakip Suli, one of the MPs in question told the media before parliament’s session this week.
Valentina Leskaj, Deputy Speaker of Parliament has also requested the same thing through a letter addressed to the Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta.
The opposition has been asking for the termination of mandates for both Suli and Leskaj on conflict of interest grounds, whereas the ruling majority pretends this is just a ruse to block the progress of justice reform.
In fact, both sides have traded accusations on the stalling of the reform.
Opposition leader Lulzim Basha had excluded any kind of political dialogue with the majority on justice reform for as long it did not take the mandates of the two majority MPs to the Constitutional Court for review concerning their legality.
“We are discussing about making amendments to the Constitution for a more independent justice system, for constitutional rules and norms, while the Prime Minister is not respecting current rules, which says that if a representative receives public funds goes to the Constitutional Court,” DP chairman Lulzim Basha had previously stated.
“The Constitution and Constitutional Court decisions cannot be negotiated, they are simply executed,” Basha added.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Edi Rama has accused the opposition that it is trying to block the opening of accession talks with the European Union by blocking the justice reform.
“The opposition clearly does not want this reform, it’s just that it is not saying it out loud. It is trying to find all sorts of pretexts, by setting conditions in order not to vote it. They don’t want the reform, because of what they have done when in power,” Rama told the Socialist parliamentary group this week.
Compromise reached on key issues regarding the country’s top justice institutions had looked promising until the process stalled once again following the opposition’s decision to condition further progress with the Constitutional Court expressing its opinion regarding the validity of mandates for the two Socialist MPs.
If parliament next week votes in favor of the opposition’s request, assuming there will be no further twists, the reform should be running according to schedule again.
