Zogaj calls vetting a waste of time

The year 2023 will continue with the battles between the judiciary and politics. The Chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Albert Zogaj, has warned that in case of attempts to reduce their salaries, this institution will appeal to the Constitution. He also spoke about the cases when the Government comments on their decisions, while he considered the vetting a waste of time

The Chairman of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, Albert Zogaj, has also warned 2023 as a year of controversies and confrontation with the executive.

And this can happen as early as the issue of the Salary Law.

"There can be no reduction in the judges' salaries because the salaries are legitimized by law and decision and in reality for 5 years the judges have accepted these salaries and in the time of great inflation and crisis it is completely unacceptable to reduce the salaries... Fortunately for unfortunately, until now we do not have a reflection of the Ombudsman neither in relation to the previous decision nor at least so far declared by the Salary Law, however, despite this, the judiciary will look at all constitutional possibilities to pursue the case until the Constitutional Court", Zogaj emphasized.

He also had complaints about the Law on Public Officials.

In 2022, the judiciary and the executive often had accusations and counter-accusations.

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Zogaj considers these reactions of the executive against the judiciary unacceptable and interference in the judicial system. He says that the judges' decisions should be accepted and not commented on, much less by the country's prime minister.

"This is direct interference in the work of the courts, imagine in a democratic country that the prime minister is interested in the name of the judge who decides on a court case, it is absurd and unacceptable", said Zogaj.

He also spoke about the vetting process in justice institutions. He said that they have not yet been invited to the Ad-Hoc commission for vetting, even though they are a key institution, but he emphasizes that they will absolutely cooperate with this Commission. He called vetting through constitutional changes a waste of time.

"We opposed the discussion on constitutional changes because we think it is not necessary, even now I think it is not necessary... There is little surprise in this process because when you look at the composition of the group, there is an agreement of the entire political spectrum on the vetting in the judiciary, people who do not agree on anything have agreed on the judiciary... We are seeing it as a waste of time to reform the judicial system, the government itself confirms that it has been worked on for two years in the discussion on the reform of the judiciary and after two years , what is the result? We are still at the zero point of reform in the judiciary, except that there is an opinion in Venice that a reform can be made...", Zogaj emphasized.

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He said that with the work they have undertaken as a Judicial Council, 2022 is the most successful in years.

According to him, the actions taken last year will shorten the length of stay of the cases in the courts.