Key partners and actors in supporting the justice reform in Albania joined the Conference on “Court Administration and Case Management” in Tirana, enabling a platform for judicial councils and experts in the region, to discuss challenges, lessons learned and best practices in the area of court administration and case management. In this regards, this Regional Conference organized by the High Judicial Council in Albania with the support of the European Union and the Council of Europe funded Action "Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania - SEJ III “ and the OSCE, was attended by members of the High judicial Council of Albania and high level representatives of the courts and judicial councils in the region: Serbia, Kosovo*, Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The event was addressed by OSCE Ambassador Bernhard Borchard, Head of Council of Europe in Tirana Jutta Gützkow, Head of High Justice Council in Albania Naureda Llagami, as well as Ambassador of Austria in Albania Christian Steiner, the Director of the Albanian School of Magistrates Sokol Sadushi and Anne Trice, Head of USAID initiative ‘Justice for all’.

During the event, important remarks and notes were shared by the participating CEPEJ experts, Mr Georg Stawa, (former President of the CEPEJ, Judicial Attaché/Councellor for the Western Balkans in the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs) spoke on the effective court administration based on CEPEJ standards and best European practices. Furthermore Mr Marco Fabri, Scientific Expert CEPEJ-SATURN Group, shared with the participants some insights on the timeframes and case weighting to improve case processing.

The event was an opportunity to the governing bodies of the judiciary, court administrators and law professionals from the countries of the Balkan region, to share and learn from CEPEJ experiences, but also in supporting the School of Magistrates in enriching their teaching curricula.

The Action “Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania - SEJ III”, is part of the jointly funded European Union and Council of Europe Programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and aims at supporting and assisting judicial authorities in developing an efficient court system, in line with the Justice Reform Strategy of Albania and European standards.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.