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EU Ambassador Silvio Gonzato stated that judicial reform is indeed the key to Albania’s progress towards membership in the European Union. In an interview with “Top Story”, Gonzato stated that the goal of judicial reform and SPAK is to crack down on high-level corruption and organized crime. He emphasized that SPAK has done a good job so far, but more is expected of them.
The Ambassador acknowledged that there is and will be political pressure on SPAK and the new judiciary, but stressed that he is confident that these institutions will withstand these pressures.
Excerpt from the interview:
Grida Duma : Let's stop or let's start with the justice reform. It is the most important, as we see it as media power now, that can create in some way a balance of powers. You have been very vocal and very direct regarding the efficiency of the justice system. You have said, if people do not feel this, you are not up to the standard. This cannot be only on paper. The prolonged processes in the past are still there. And the political lobbying in the appointments of some councilors or magistrates and so on is still there.
Now, in a few days, we have elections in the most important structure, SPAK. Do you really think that politics has not interfered in this structure now? Is it more important, let's say, the perception of people that only SPAK can stop corruption? It is a perception, but let's see.
Ambassador : No, thank you for starting with this question, because I think that justice reform, as you said, is really the key to Albania's progress towards membership in the European Union. We have repeatedly emphasized it. And if you look at the progress report, you will see that when we deal with the fight against corruption, the fight against organized crime, the achievements of SPAK are highlighted. But we are asking for more. You see in the report that we are asking for financial investigations to be intensified, for the seizure of assets and properties belonging to criminals to be increased, for cooperation with law enforcement agencies of member states to be intensified. So, we want more, but we appreciate what has been done so far.
But you will also see that the report highlighted, and this is something I was very connected to, highlighted the need for a better and more efficient ordinary justice, because I feel and I am interested in the fact that ordinary citizens do not really see the advantages, the benefits of the reform. In fact, they have probably seen a slight deterioration in standards, because of the vacancies, because there was also a reform of the whole court structure, etc. Transitions are always difficult. Transitions always have a cost, and therefore you have to have a medium to long-term perspective and think, okay, now it is not so good, but I know that I will get to a stage where things will be better. But this is also why I have been very engaged with independent justice institutions, because as I always say, independence is associated with accountability and efficiency.
So these institutions have now been given independence. And they, of course, will have political pressures, and that will continue, but they are much more stable, they can withstand, yes, yes, I am convinced of that. And you see it in the way they make decisions, etc. But they also have to take responsibility, they are the institutions that have to manage the entire judiciary, the entire judicial system. And that is why, again, in the progress report, you will see that we insist very much on the fact that they have to establish transparent rules for the recruitment of magistrates, for the evaluation of magistrates, because you can evaluate the integrity of a judge or prosecutor once, but if you don't continue to do that, you know, you can still have cases of corruption within the judiciary. So there needs to be a continuous evaluation of the integrity of magistrates. And these are things that they need to do. They need to appoint the presidents of the courts that have not yet been appointed. So there are a lot of decisions that they need to make. The ball is on their side.
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