Since 2014, the European Union and the Council of Europe are providing a comprehensive assistance towards efficiency and quality of justice system in Albania. Part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey, the assistance focused on improving the public service of justice delivered to the Albanian citizens, with concrete measures and unique tools/standards of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ).

Based on the aforementioned results and its importance, a follow up action on “Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania - SEJ III” is included in the second phase of the programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022".

In this context, key representatives from beneficiary and partner institutions (Ministry of Justice, High Council of Justice, Courts, School of Magistrates, Office for the Administration of the Judicial Budget, General Prosecutor’s Office, etc.) came together in the action's 1st Steering Committee meeting to take stock of the achieved results and coordinate the activities ahead.

The meeting was addressed by the Head of Rule of Law and Good Governance from the European Union Delegation in Tirana, Ms Lenka Vitkova, who focused in 3 key components in strengthening the quality of justice: trust in the system, the fairness of the justice system but also the efficiency of the justice system able to deliver to citizens.

In his remarks, Mr Olsi Dekovi, Deputy Head of CoE Office in Tirana, shared with the participants the importance of this Action in view of the Justice Reform agenda, in particular with respect to priority areas such as the judicial map, the system for the evaluation of judges and improvements to judicial statistics.