The Council of Europe continues to support Albanian authorities in their efforts to improve the legislative framework and institutional practices concerning the application of European Court of Human Rights case law, as well as improving the execution of national judgments. In this respect three working groups were set up to conduct an assessment on the three pillars covered by the project, respectively national remedies for length of proceedings, property compensation/restitution, and reopening of criminal proceedings.
On 10 October the three groups of experts conducted a consultation meeting with national authorities in order to share their preliminary findings gathered through a desk research, as well as to give more coherence to the draft report they will be producing. The meeting was conducted in the form of the focus groups divided in three sessions where the authorities and consultants engaged through a question and answer session. The aim of this first mission was to discuss with authorities the advancement Albania has made in terms of Convention standards, as well as to assess if further gaps need to be tackled in terms of legislation, policies, work practices or inter-institutional collaboration.
Consultants had a chance to hold in depth discussions with representatives of the Constitutional Court, High Court, General Prosecution Office, Appeal Administrative Court, School of Advocacy, General State Advocate, Agency for the Treatment of Property and Law professors. During the event a connection with the Execution Department and the Headquarters in Strasbourg was made possible, in an attempt to coordinate efforts between this project and the mission of the Execution Department.
The findings of the assessments will contribute in mapping the legislation and institutional situation in Albania, while at the same time identify the areas where the assistance of the project should focus more specifically. The final drafts of these reports will be reviewed and validated with the project beneficiary institutions during a workshop planned in November 2017.
