Albanian Democrats Reject US-Backed Judicial Reform

US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the chairman of PD, Lulzim Basha. Photo: LSA

 Three days after the US Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, visited Tirana, Albania’s opposition Democratic Party has rejected her compromise proposal for the screening and selection of judicial officials as part of planned justice reforms.

After taking two days to evaluate the proposal that was presented as a chance for the ruling and opposition parties in Albania come together and end the stalemate over the reforms, the Democrats under Lulzim Basha said they did not agree with some of the ideas.

On Wednesday, as Top Channel TV reported, the Democrats demanded an “ad hoc” political commission of six members to make proposals while another commission of 12 would make the final selection.

But in the party’s draft proposal, the international experts in the “ad hoc” commission of six are only given roles as observers – when the US-backed proposal said they should have a bigger role, filtering the candidates before they can further proceed in the selection process.

The Democrats’ standpoint sets back efforts by US and European Union diplomats to get the squabbling parties in Albania to agree the package of judicial reform.

After more than two hours of talks behind closed doors with his MPs, Basha said they accepted 95 per cent of Nuland’s proposal but still disagreed on the role of international experts in the commission screening candidates for the justice system.

“We cannot agree on giving constitutional or quasi-constitutional rights to the international monitoring mission,” he said.

“If things go wrong in this mission, who will be responsible – the Prime Minister of Finland or the Swiss one?” Basha asked, although he added that they were open for further negotiations.

The US ambassador to Tirana, Donald Lu, on Wednesday said that he was disappointed with the Democrats’ reaction, while emphasizing that the US proposal was fair and gave the party the same rights as the majority in the process of selecting justice officials.

Lu considered that the Democrats’ stand was not also in accordance with the Venice Commission proposals, although he emphasized that there was still a chance to find a compromise on the proposal.

Prime Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday accused the opposition of being afraid of international experts having a role in screening judges.

“They don’t want international experts around because they fear their professionalism in the screeing process for judges and prosecutors in Albania. With this refusal, the Democrats just wants to keep the EU and US away from the process,” he said.

Reflecting the importance that the reform has for Albania’s integration into the EU, however, Rama invited Basha to another meeting on reform to try to find a solution.

For 18 months international experts from the EU and US legal missions in Albania have closely collaborated with local counterparts on drafting the judicial reform package.

Their presence has been welcomed by Albanian political leaders at a time when it is agreed that reforms are needed to detach the justice system from political influence.