According to Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, contracting parties must abide by the final judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) to which they are parties and this obligation is unequivocal. At the national level, most Council of Europe member states formalise regulation regarding the execution of the Court’s judgments through secondary legislation and few of them by virtue of a lex specialis (Italy, Ukraine and FYROM). Although there is no formal obligation on member states to ensure execution of the Court’s judgments in national legislation, the lex specialis on execution of the Court’s judgments sends a strong signal of continued commitment to more speedily and efficiently address the execution processes.

Further to the request received from the Albanian Assembly on 10 October 2018, the Council of Europe has provided an opinion on legal amendments pertaining to the Law on the State Advocate. Based on recommendations provided in this opinion, the working group was set at the national level to introduce the Chapter on the execution of judgments and decisions of the Court to the above-mentioned legal amendments. The Chapter was developed by EURALIUS experts in close cooperation with the Department of the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

The amendments to the State Advocate Law were adopted by the Albanian Assembly on 22 November 2018, reinforcing domestic capacity to effectively execute the Court’s judgments and thus bringing Albanian legislation closer with the best European standards.