TIRANA, Dec. 5 – The Venice Commission preliminary report on the vetting of Albanian politicians said the opposition’s proposal to investigate the ties between politics and criminality is legitimate, but that the Parliament should have a final say on the matter.
The VC is expected to issue a final report on the political vetting during a meeting that will be held on Dec. 14 and 15, however local media managed to ensure the draft in which the opposition’s worries are deemed legitimate, but unclear legally and shaky judicially.
“Despite the legitimate aim of the proposal in the context of Albania – which aims to remove violators and their influence on high levels of government and political life – the constitutional project for overseeing politicians’ integrity fails to provide adequate guidance and safeguards even at the constitutional level, for such a large, complex and sensitive process, with serious implications for the rights of those who will be subject to it,” the preliminary report said on the opposition’s constitutional amendment proposals.
The draft puts particular weight on the lack of clear legal and judicial guidelines concerning cases when it becomes impossible to be elected for office and the loss of one’s mandate.
According to the proposed amendments, “elected citizens who have been sentenced to imprisonment by a final, first-order decision for committing a crime, or citizens who have contacts with persons involved in organized crime, according to rules defined by law and approved by three-fifths of all members of parliament, are excluded from the right to be elected.”
However, VC experts pointed out the opposition’s proposed vetting misses out on some important elements, such as “what is meant by having contact with certain persons (ii) what is meant by being involved in organized crime and (iii) what is meant by being included in the circle of subjects that have contact with persons.”
Moreover, the VC commission draft underlines it is unclear how the verification procedure will be organized, who will be conducting the verification and, more importantly, what protective measures will be taken to avoid the risk of politicizing the process, or using it in an arbitrary way.
Meanwhile, the opposition has insisted it is seeking to apply the same practice that has been applied for the vetting of judges and prosecutors, and for that reason it considered it in vain to include the Venice Commission, as the body has already been consulted on the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors, as well as on the Decriminalization Law.
Regarding this argument, VC experts say in the draft their conclusions on the judiciary’s reform are not automatically applicable to the vetting of politicians.
“The judicial branch of the government has different specifics (judges are usually appointed for life, must be independent and impartial, they are not directly accountable to other branches of government, their position can not be challenged by the electorate in general elections, their decisions can not be annulled by anyone outside the judicial system, etc.) that justify a differentiated treatment,” the report clarifies.
Concluding, the VC draft says it is difficult to assess whether the opposition’s proposal is a proportional answer to a very real problem that Albania faces due to obscurities in the proposal.
Both majority and opposition representatives are going to participate in the official meeting that will take place in ten days and announce the VC’s final stand on the issue.
