Yesterday the Constitutional Court celebrated its 25th anniversary in the presence of President Ilir Meta and Prime Minister Edi Rama.
While the Prime Minister is currently reeling from the scandal involving his former right hand and Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri, as he scrambles to save his own skin, he praised the Constitutional Court:
There certainly may be criticism and there is, but if there is one Albanian institution that can be entered today without shame it is the Constitutional Court.
What the Prime Minister forgets to mention, however, is the highest court of Albania has already for months had two vacancies which are still not filled up. Besides the resignation of Vladimir Kristo in August 2017 and Sokol Berberi in September 2016, their seats have remained vacant. Another judge in the Constitutional Court, Vitore Tusha, is also at the end of her mandate.
Not only the Constitutional Court is suffering from a shortage of judges. Also the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) still has no new Albanian judge. Last month, Exit already reported that the Rama government had missed the August 31 deadline to propose three suitable candidates, after their first two lists had been rejected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
We are now nearly a month later, and the government still did not propose a new list of candidates for Albania’s only seat on the ECtHR.
