EU Ambassador's Silvio Gonzato speech at the presenting of the study 'The performance of the Special Prosecution (SPAK) and Special Courts against Corruption and Organized Crime'

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EU Ambassador's Silvio Gonzato speech at the presenting of the study "The performance of the Special Prosecution (SPAK) and Special Courts against Corruption and Organized Crime"

25.09.2024 Press and information team of the Delegation to Albania

Thank you for the opportunity to be here and hear about the findings of this new study by Centre for the Study of Democracy and Governance.

I think the value of these kind of events and these kind of studies is precisely to give civil society the role they have to play in a democracy. That is to keep institutions accountable, also give us the pulse of what is public perception on certain crucial issues, but also to put forward recommendations that have been obviously for authorities and politicians to consider.

Welcome the role of civil society in evaluating the performance of national institutions, keeping them accountable, and giving the pulse of public perception of Albania's efforts in the fight against organised crime and corruption.

Fighting corruption and organised crime is at the core of strengthening the rule of law and a crucial objective for the countries in the enlargement process. It is a complex and challenging endeavour and requires a comprehensive approach.

The creation of SPAK as a separate structure for the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of corruption and organised crime cases has certainly been a cornerstone of this process - decided and carried by Albania as part of a strong political and societal consensus. The main purpose for creating SPAK was to strengthen the integrity, independence and effectiveness of the authorities responsible for investigating and adjudicating high-level corruption and organised crime cases.

This objective is reflected in all of the constitutional and legal provisions and guarantees introduced by the justice reform. Effectiveness is reached through an incremental process - legal provisions provide the foundations but then you need to build up the expertise and develop the tools, so it takes time. Since the beginning of the overhaul of the justice system, the EU has supported the establishment of a strong and independent SPAK, alongside our US partners, in line with the fundamental principles underpinning the reform.

And SPAK has been showing encouraging results. SPAK investigations have resulted in the conviction of several high-level officials. It has systematically used financial investigations ("following the money") and as a result asset confiscation has improved. The Special Prosecution Office has developed a solid cooperation with its international counterparts including in the EU, to tackle organised crime.

This progress has been noted also by the Albanian people whose trust in the justice institutions has recently increased.

The road towards setting up a new institution such as SPAK, with a highly complex and challenging mandate, has not always been (and still isn't) smooth and easy. Like any new institution, it needed time to reach cruise-speed. SPAK has had to deal with a legacy of a culture of impunity in the country, and- due to the very nature of its work of investigating high-profile corruption cases - has been increasingly thrown at the centre of attention. By it's by no means the only actor and factor in the fight against corruption.

Some of the challenges SPAK is facing have been clearly identified in the EU screening report and also in the rule of law report on Albania released last July, such as: the need to enhance human resources and operational capacities; the need for deploying more sophisticated investigative tools; The need to further increase the investigative capacity of the National Bureau of Investigation, as an integral part of SPAK. And another key challenge is the low number of referrals that other state institutions provide to SPAK that would enable it to initiate investigations and conclude them successfully.

The EU will continue to stand by this institution to enable it to exercise its mandate. This also means that we will continue to support SPAK in overcoming some of the challenges it has been facing. And whilst recognising these challenges, I'd also like to point out that, when assessing the overall country's efforts in fighting corruption and organised crime, it is very important to keep in mind that SPAK is only one part - albeit a very important one - of the country's overall arsenal.

The experience from EU Member States certainly is that fighting such an pervasive phenomenon has to be a national wide and societal effort, with a long-term focus on prevention and addressing the structural vulnerabilities in the system that expose it to systemic corruption.

Repression alone will not solve the problem. That is why in all its official reports on Albania, the EU strongly emphasises the need for Albanian institutions to do more on prevention side: Improve the corruption prevention legal framework and improve the coordination between institutions in charge of corruption prevention and relevant law enforcement structures;

Take concrete prevention measures in sectors most vulnerable to corruption, where anti-corruption measures have had so far a limited impact: public infrastructure, cadastre and property rights, customs, tax administration, education, health, public procurement, PPP contracts, etc. Increase education and awareness raising to prevent corruption.

In this context, I do hope that in the ongoing work of the parliamentary special committee on Albania 2030, all stakeholders will take the opportunity to focus on these preventive measures - there is a lot that can be done in this area, based on evidence and wide consultation.

To conclude, the justice reform was crucial to open the door to EU accession negotiations for Albania and for this reason the EU will continue with its: strong support to the independence of the judiciary; consistent support to SPAK's work and commitment to continue helping this institution in delivering on its mandate; and more generally, consolidating the 2016 justice reform in Albania and making sure it is irreversible.

Additional remarks

Without independent justice institutions, there is no independent justice. Criteria as accountability and transparency cannot be used at the cost of their independence, and I think that there are internal mechanisms for the justice institutions to increase those two qualities.

And I know that in our Progress Report or Screening Report we talk about Parliament exercising its role more adequately, but that was not meant to be constructed as changing the current checks and balances or changing the hierarchy between the different institutions. They are meant simply to encourage Parliament to follow up seriously on those discussions that it has regularly with the independent justice institutions and other institutions, and to follow up recommendations made in the reports by such institutions, taking the measures that are needed, including budgetary measures.

And finally when it comes to one important aspect of the reform, notably the inclusion of civil society representatives in the independent justice institutions, I just would like to refer to some comments that were made in the Rule of Law report published in July, where with regard to the appointment of non magistrates members we found that there are still short comings for example, in the lack of background checks and asset verification compared with the magistrate members and that therefore, this resulted in the lack of transparency, perhaps lack also of meritocracy in the process, so definitely there is room for improvement.