After the unlawful reopening of the application process for the National Ombudsman and the unconstitutional reopening of the application process for the vetting institution candidates, General Secretary of Parliament, Albana Shtylla, has proposed to reopen the application process for members of the High Judicial Council (KLGj) and High Prosecutorial Council (KLP) that are chosen from the ranks of law professors.
According to art. 147 and 149 of the Constitution, the KLGj and KLP both consist of 11 members, 2 of are professors at a Faculty of Law. The list of candidates is compiled by the General Secretary of Parliament and sent to the parliamentary law committee for the final selection.
In her letter to Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta, Shtylla argues that the 6 professors who applied for the 2 KLGj positions and the 5 applications for the 2 KLP position are insufficient. She bases herself on the Law no. 115/2016 art. 53 and 151 “On the organization of the government of the judicial system,” in which it is stated that the minimum amount of candidates should be “not less than thrice the number of vacant positions.”
It appears that at least for the KLGj this legal minimum of 6 applications has been reached, but not for the KLP. In her letter to Speaker Meta, however, Shtylla interprets “not less than thrice the number of vacant positions” to mean not less than 7.
As neither the Constitution nor Law 115/2016 stipulates what needs to be done in case the number is lower than 6, Shtylla proposes to reopen both applications. Again, it is unclear why the application process needs to be reopened in case of the KLGj, as the legal minimum of 6 applications has been met.
