Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Albania (SEJ III)
The activities are implemented in the framework of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Horizontal Facility of the Western Balkans and Turkey II co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.
An earlier phase of this programme (July 2016 - May 2019) was supported by the European Union.
May 2019 - December 2022
Objectives of the Action
The overall objective of the SEJ III Action is to continue to assist the judiciary, and in particular new institutions, in Albania with key areas of its on-going reform and improve its efficiency and quality in accordance with European standards.
The first specific objective is to use opportunities of the reform and of new institutions to improve judicial statistics in accordance with CEPEJ standards and tools with, in particular, a sustainable and consistent process to collect and analyse reliable statistics at national and court levels including with a new case management system.
The second specific objective is to address key areas of the reform to improve the quality of its services in accordance with CEPEJ standards and tools with for example:
The modernization of the judiciary with an IT Strategy;
Improvements to court security and safety;
The implementation of the CEPEJ methodology for the judicial map review in Albania;
Additional support to implement the new scheme for the evaluation of judges;
Additional satisfaction surveys;
Court coaching projects;
Improvements to the relationship with the media.
The third specific objective isto assist the School of Magistrates (SOM) respond to the new legal framework resulting from the justice reform process in accordance with CEPEJ standards and tools.
Main beneficiaries and partners
Ministry of Justice, High Judicial Council, High Prosecutorial Council, Courts, School of Magistrates, Bar Associations.
The CEPEJ has published the results of the third cycle of the Dashboard Western Balkans Action, which shows the 2021 data for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo*. A first comparative part allows to identify regional trends concerning 12 indicators...
On 14-15 September, the High Prosecutorial Council, High Judicial Council and High Inspector of Justice representatives participated in a workshop to discuss communication strategies of judicial institutions with media and the public. The participants had the opportunity to discuss the CEPEJ...
The Council of Ministers approved on 23 July 2022 the joint proposal of High Judicial Council (HJC) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for a new judicial map in Albania. Since 2018, CEPEJ supported the Albanian justice institutions to use CEPEJ methodology for the review of judicial map and conduct...
On 24 June 2022, the Albanian High Inspector of Justice (HIJ) in partnership and co-operation with the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and the European Network of Judicial Inspectors (RESIJ) organized in Tirana an International Conference on "Public interest in the...
On May 12 and 13, senior managers of various courts attended a workshop on effective court leadership aimed to provide a forum of exchange on effective ways to use the CEPEJ indicators and tools to improve court performance and enhance court leadership capacities. Addressing the event, the...
On 9 May 2022, a conference entitled “Justice in challenging times”, focusing on important challenges faced by the judiciary, is organised in Albania to mark the National Day of Justice. The chair of the High Judicial Council, the Minister of Justice, Albanian judges, governing bodies of the...
An innovative online system to carry out court user satisfaction surveys based on CEPEJ methodology, was launched on 22 April 2022, at Tirana District Court. Naureda Llagami, Chair of the High Judicial Council stressed the importance of such instrument administered by the High Judicial Council,...
The European Union and Council of Europe joint action “Strengthening the Efficiency and Quality of Justice in Albania” is supporting the School of Magistrates to improve managerial capacities of the court leadership in Albania. The first regional activity with the court leadership took place in...
On February 18, 2022, the chairwoman of the High Judicial Council (HJC), the Minister of Justice (MoJ) and the General Prosecutor held an exchange of views with representatives of the Courts, Bar Association and legal aid services on the judicial map proposal, presented for discussion in several...
A delegation of the European Network of Judicial Inspectors (RESIJ) composed of high justice inspectors from several European countries (France, Italy, Romania and Portugal) will hold an exchange visit with the Albanian High Inspectorate of Justice (HJI) in Tirana (Albania) from 22 to 24 November...
On 4 and 5 November 2021, in Vlorë (Albania), the CEPEJ started a series of trainings to improve the judicial statistical data collection system, based on the CEPEJ methodology, in a uniformed way, in particular concerning court registers. The regional workshops provided an opportunity for the...
On 23 September, the CEPEJ organised the Steering Committee meeting of the Action “Strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania - SEJ III » in order to discuss on the progress of activities for the last semester and the plans ahead. Representatives of key justice institutions...
CEPEJ experts are conducting a series of trainings on the new methodology for the collection of the judicial data as part of its support to the High Judicial Council (HJC). In accordance with the Law No. 115/2016 on Governance Institutions of the Justice System, HJC adopted a Guide on the...
On 23 May 2020, the CEPEJ Secretariat organised a meeting with Mr Ghera, President of the Court of Strasbourg, and the SEJIII and KOSEJII project teams to get an understanding of how courts and lawyers communicate in France through the e-Barreau platform, and to discuss if a similar platform...
A third training session was organised on CEPEJ tools on 28 February 2020 in Tirana, following the Training Needs Assessment carried out under SEJII. The training seminar focused on satisfaction surveys for court users and was attended by the newly appointed magistrates. Its objective was to...
At the request of the High Judicial Council (HJC), a mission of CEPEJ experts to support the transfer of responsibility for the collection of statistics from the Ministry of Justice to HJC has been organized on 12-14 February 2020. CEPEJ experts with main beneficiaries (HJC, MoJ, High Justice...
Under the framework of the second phase of the European Union / Council of Europe Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey (HF II), the Council of Europe is looking for a maximum of 14 (fourteen) Providers at local level to support the implementation of the Action on ‘Strengthening...
Collaborative workspaces:
