The Albanian Ombudsman has found that Justice Appointments Council (KED) activity has lacked transparency during 2019.
The monitoring report on the Justice Appointments Council found several problems with the lot-drawing procedure for the 2019 creation of KED, the working conditions of KED, the drafting of its activity regulations, the procedure to verify eligibility of the candidates, and several issues with KED’s activity during 2019. It refers also to opinions of the Venice Commission.
The Ombudsman found that the notice deadline, which requires a meeting and its agenda be notified of 5 days in advance, has never been observed.
The report also found that during 2019 the KED chairperson did not fulfill their duty to make public meeting minutes and members’ discussions, thus infringing on the transparency of the process.
Additionally, KED adopted a regulation that barred the Ombudsman from participating in meetings within the ‘deliberation chamber.’ The Ombudsman also was not informed on the process of selection and scoring of the candidates. The Ombudsman also reports that no meeting regarding the selection and scoring was held.
According to the Ombudsman, KED rulings are not transparent and contain incomplete information. Documentation prepared by rapporteurs on each candidate does not contain in-depth analysis or thorough information on the candidates.
Finally, it was impossible for most candidates to communicate directly with all KED members. This could only be done through a rapporteur.
