As part of the European Network of Justice Inspection Services (RESIJ), the Office of the High Inspector of Justice has accepted the Network’s invitation to engage in the COPEIJ “Cooperation for Environmental Protection through Justice Inspection Services” project of the European Commission for cooperation in environmental protection through national justice inspection authorities, alongside the counterpart institutions of France, Italy, Romania and Portugal, under the management of Expertise France.
In this context, members of the HIJ Office have participated in all the project activities that took place in the period February-September 2023, from the coordination meetings to the study visits, which were carried out in rotation in each of the project sites, during to which local national authorities responsible for environmental protection have referred work practices and both institutional and legal challenges. At the end of this phase, each country prepares a working report, in French, with the overview and recommendations for the national authorities and the European Commission, for the creation of tools to reduce the gap between the need for effective environmental criminal justice and the current reality in each country.
The team of the office of the High Inspector of Justice prepared the national report on our country, which contains the national and international legal framework, the institutional framework, the local and ECHR jurisprudence on environmental crime, the presentation of Albanian administrative authorities, specialized judicial authorities and other civil authorities, statistical data, collaborations and work practices as well as recommendations for the national authorities and for the European Commission, as the project sponsor.
“Often perceived as ‘victimless’ and random crimes, environmental crimes are often low on the list of law enforcement priorities and are usually punished with low sanctions, as a result of unclear definitions and misinterpretation of concepts. In this context, this basic report enables a detailed analysis of the Albanian environmental legal framework, of the institutional capacities, including both the aspect of human and financial resources, as well as aspects of their activity,” says the report prepared by HIJ.