TIRANA – The vetting of judges and prosecutors as part of justice reform is expected to start in September. The Chair of International Monitoring Operation (IMO) for justice reform, Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, in an interview with DW, was very upbeat about this process.
She said that the sooner this process gets underway, the better. “The International Monitoring Operation (IMO) is ready to provide its highly qualified expertise to assist the process as soon as the local vetting institutions get ready to start the process of re-evaluation, which we hope will start early this autumn,” she said.
Calavera goes on saying that international bodies have a monitoring role with the process depending entirely on domestic structures. “To make myself clear, while international community is responsible for the monitoring of this process, it is up to domestic structures, the vetting bodies that have been set up to carry out a direct re-evaluation,” according to the Chair of IMO.
Asked about the first results of justice reform, Calavera did not mention any time frame, however she was very upbeat about this process. Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, who is also Director in charge of the Western Balkans at the DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, touched on integration of the region in EU. “The Western Balkans is part of the European family and its future lies in EU. The last meeting in Trieste was an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in many sectors confirming the joint commitment to advancing the bilateral relations as well as regional cooperation,” she said.