2022 Report on Albania

European Commission - Countries insights Key findings of the 2022 Report on Albania Brussels, 12 October 2022 As regards the political criteria, in the new legislature, resulting from the 2021 elections, which were held following the cross-party agreement of 5 June 2020 the elected members from the largest opposition parties took their seats in parliament. The parliament elected the new President of the Republic. Internal conflict within the largest opposition party (DP), affected parliamentary life. On EU oriented reforms, parliament passed a time-limited constitutional extension of the vetting bodies mandate and nine laws aimed at alignment with the EU acquis. The government maintained a focus on reforms related to the country's EU path and reinforced its coordination structure for EU integration, but it needs to further advance the EU reform agenda, together with the opposition and all segments of society. The establishment of several government agencies around the Prime Minister's Office, without a comprehensive steering framework and without a systematic attention to oversight and reporting lines, raises questions in relation to the standards of public administration. A new decentralisation strategy beyond 2022, remains to be adopted and upstream consultation at local level will be essential. Despite funding improvements, limited progress was made to implement the roadmap on creating an enabling environment for civil society. Albania is moderately prepared in the area of public administration reform. It made limited progress in strengthening line ministries' capacity to implement regulatory impact assessments and hold public consultations. It started preparations for the salary reform and expanded the automated payroll system. Implementation of the 2015-2022 public administration reform and the 2014-2022 public financial management reform strategies continued. The IT systems for integrated planning are not yet fully functional. However, bodies subordinate to ministries (agencies) continued to be created without a comprehensive steering framework, systematic attention to oversight or clear reporting lines. They also further exacerbated the issue of tasks entrusted to staff hired under the Labour Code, instead of to civil servants. Provisions on merit-based recruitment in the civil service law remain to be fully implemented, especially for senior level positions. The number of provided online services continued to increase, but this also raises questions about equitable access for citizens with limited digital skills. Albania's judicial system has reached a moderate level of preparation. Comprehensive justice reform continued, resulting in good progress overall. Two new judges were appointed to the Constitutional Court in March and September 2022, further improving the court's ability to carry out its mandate. There was also progress with the High Court, which now has 15 sitting judges, enabling it to reduce the case backlog for the first time in six years, to start unifying the case law and to appoint judges to the Constitutional Court. Further appointments to the High Court are expected. However, long proceedings, a low clearance rate and a large case backlog continue to negatively impact the efficiency of the judicial system. To tackle these problems, a new judicial map was adopted following consultations. Additional efforts are still required to put it into effect, as well as to improve the case management system and the training system for magistrates. The temporary re-evaluation of all judges and prosecutors (the vetting process) has continued to advance steadily. Under the aegis of the European Commission, the International Monitoring Operation has continued to oversee the process independently. By 12 September, the vetting institutions had completed 554 first-instance cases. Around 64% of the vetting dossiers processed so far resulted in dismissals, resignations or the termination of mandate of vetted magistrates. The vetting institutions must continue to refer cases to the prosecution services where there are indications of criminal offences. The Specialised Structure for Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK), comprising the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), continued its operations. After a budget increase in 2021, the SPO now has 17 prosecutors in place, the recruitment of eight financial investigators is underway and the NBI reached its full operational capacity of 60 investigators after a second round of recruitment. Albania has some level of preparation in the fight against corruption. It continued its efforts to build on its track record of investigation, prosecutions and convictions in the fight against corruption

View entire presentation