High Inspector of Justice Mr. Artur Metani participated in the second meeting of the Beneficiary Steering Committee of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” (Horizontal Facility III) programme. Mr. Metani singled out the cooperation over the years of the HIJ Office with this joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe in the framework of strengthening the quality and efficiency of justice in Albania.
The speech of the High Inspector of Justice, Mr. Artur Metani
Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for the invitation!
It is always a pleasure to return to the events of the Council of Europe, as with the Tirana Office, through Mr. Dekovi, the High Inspector of Justice, started the cooperation from the beginning of its operation as an institution. I recall that we started with the initial assessment of the needs of the HIJ Office for professional capacity building, identifying topics of interest for training, work methodology and accompanying activities.
Over the years, the project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ) has had an important role in supporting the Albanian institutions of justice, in the implementation of reforms that ensure the increase in the efficiency and quality of the justice system in our country and HIJ has been one of the beneficiaries, which has translated the experience gained into increased visibility and networking with European counterparts, through full membership in the European Network of Justice Inspection Services, RESIJ.
Thus, responding to the needs of the HIJ and within the framework of cooperation with RESIJ, since 2021, CEPEJ has supported the training activities in Tirana of the HIJ inspectors’ team from their counterparts from the EU member states (France, Italy and Romania), both in disciplinary investigation and inspection practices in accordance with European standards.
The High Inspector of Justice, with the SEJ IV project has carried out two important training modules in Tirana. The first was in June 2023, with French inspectors, who trained the HIJ team with the European practices of the inspection of magistrates in cooperation with RESIJ, an event that was combined with an official visit of the Chief of the General Inspectorate of Justice of France.
This year, i.e. in 2024, there was a collaboration between SEJ IV and EU4 Justice in response to the needs of the HIJ, for strengthening the capacities of inspectors in the development of thematic inspections, with an innovation, the combination of a classic training focused on the methodology of the preparation and development of an institutional inspection in the courts and prosecution offices, with a practical process, as was the concrete inspection in the prosecutor’s office of Durrës, according to the annual planning of the HIJ. The special thing is that the results and main findings of this activity were used in the preparation of a guide for conducting thematic inspections, which will be discussed in the next activity, after a few days, and which will be an important and sustainable tool, which will facilitate the daily work of inspectors, orienting it in accordance with EU practice.
In this spirit, the office of the High Inspector of Justice remains interested in continuing the cooperation with the EU and Council of Europe project for Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Albania (SEJ IV), and undoubtedly also to benefit from the expertise of CEPEJ, in the continuous efforts to strengthen the professional capacities of the HIJ with the best practices.
Thank you for your attention.
