The Chairwoman of the Constitutional Court of Albania, Holta Zaçaj, stated that there is no mechanism compelling politics to enforce decisions, when asked about decisions taken but still unimplemented by Parliament.
During a media conference analyzing the Constitutional Court’s yearly work, Zaçaj stated that it was unimaginable for the decisions of the Court not to be implemented.
“Questioning the implementation of Constitutional Court decisions is inconceivable in a rule of law state. Having the form of the law and having no ambiguity in not being implemented, the Constitutional Court has no mechanisms to control the enforceability of decisions,” said Zaçaj.
“What I want to emphasize is that if I can give a message to politics, it is that implementing Constitutional Court decisions is the right, necessary, and only way. There is no other way of behavior if we want to be institutions of a rule of law state guided by the principle of democracy. There is no expected legal effect because such a thing is not imagined. There are no mechanisms that can be set in motion when a Constitutional Court decision is not implemented. The decision of the Constitutional Court is the law, and for this reason, there are no mechanisms,” emphasized Zaçaj.
Asked about the case of the elected mayor of Himara, Fredi Beleri, Zaçaj said that there was no request for expedited processing.
“On September 28, 2023, the Constitutional Court took into consideration and decided to include it in the plenary session. It has not come into process, it is being prepared, materials are being collected. When a case is ready, and the rapporteur is ready, they request the date, and it is set. We don’t have a request for expedited processing from the parties involved in the process,” said Zaçaj.
Regarding the decision regarding immigrants, Zaçaj said, “the decision is being worked on. The Court said with conviction that the Albanian state continues to have jurisdiction. We said that the responsibility of the Albanian state continues to exist; we did not deny the responsibility of the Albanian state regarding these areas; we saw the jurisdiction of the Italian state in function of the obligations that the Italian state has under international law. What we said in terms of dual or extra-territorial jurisdiction that arises, we accepted this as a factual occurrence, the agreement enters the hierarchy of norms. It is established in a hierarchical rank by the Constitution itself. The European Convention on Human Rights is at the constitutional level. Within this framework, jurisdiction coming from the Constitution continues to exist and is not questioned,” said the Chairwoman of the Constitutional Court.
Asked about the debate over salary increases, she explained that the institution she leads has proposed correcting the salary hierarchy.
“When the court salaries were raised, the Constitutional Court made a proposal to Parliament, with some changes to our organic law, and we asked for a review of the salaries, including the salary of the Constitutional Court judge. The constitutional judge’s salary should be the highest salary in the judiciary; this is the hierarchy. We wanted to correct the salary hierarchy in the judiciary. Historically they have been the highest paid. The same thing happens in every country in the world; the constitutional court judge is the highest paid. Italy pays its judges more than its president,” said Zaçaj.
“We did not determine how much our salary should be but to review and decide on the principle. The Government wanted to correct it. They saw it as wrong and passed a law that was not aligned with the Constitutional Court. For us, it is important to remain in the hierarchy as the highest paid judge. We did not recognize and produce the figures ourselves. The Constitutional judge’s salary today is 390,000 lek gross and 290,000 lek net, comparable very close to the first-tier judge,” said the head of the Constitutional Court, Holta Zaçaj.
