Bird: Stability Bill Unacceptable for judiciary

Zogaj, in an interview for Kosova Prees, says both documents are not in KRK expectations, as the salary one lowers judges' salaries to 40%, while for public officials he makes recruiting procedures difficult for administration staff.

According to him, both of these bills are contrary to the Constitutional Court's decisions.

“According to the original draft under the assumption that the cofficients will be the ones discussed in public, the judges' salaries will be reduced to 40%, and when we have in mind mass inflation 20%, this is definitely a completely unacceptable approach to the current Law for Salaries, but the same logic applies to the Law for Public Officials, because we as an independent institution need to take any position to get a confirmation from the relevant ministry, something that very difficult the process of reducing officials. We've given our arguments that are both constitutional but international and domestic references that the judge's salary cannot be reduced... This draft law must be corrected and the status of judges in the salary sense should be considered with special attention, but also the judiciary administration”, Zogaj says.

The head of the KDR considers that lowering judges' salaries will affect the loss of the job motive, but will also increase the risk of corruption.

“We will have young people's encouragement to become part of the judicial system, under two we will leave believe a number of good judges we have in the system that have high professional expertise, especially at high judicial levels without any discussion because they don't want to be motivated for work, and we should even after all make schedules on the pay we get and the commitment to financial institutions because they have made investment in the family, and what is equally dangerous, and it's serious to the Council that the judiciary is also likely to have corruption in the system if the salaries are reduced. The judiciary's performance, or judicial criticism, cannot be justified by lowering pay. So it means that we have to build a literal, functional system, an objective of performance assessment and discipline, but it cannot be conditioned to pay in any way. There are observations to the judiciary, and we are fully aware of efficiency and quality, but what we see is that transparency is at the maximum in the judicial system is seen as efforts of the system to raise efficiency in all courts”, he stressed.

Zogaj said the draft wage bill, but also for public officials, would be sent to the Constitutional Court in the event it is approved by the Kosovo Assembly.

The Judiciary Council is a body, respectively, the institution that manages judiciary and the number one responsibility of this body is maintaining the independence of the judiciary, therefore, independence of the judiciary should also be seen in the dimension you need to advance judges' status, the status of the judge in the same sense as reference in the region and beyond, but also in other dimensions that can be adopted because the Law for public officials reduces the independence of the judiciary for the recruit of staff, we've worked especially years since 2013 has been worked on a lot of judicial action, and the establishment of the constitutions is absolutely unacceptable, and the initiative to reduce the independence of the judiciary is currently since the EUP.1FE.

Regarding the process of vetoing the justice system, which has been rejected by the Kosovo Judiciary Council, Zogaj believes that as such it will fail to pass to the Kosovo Assembly.

We said a year and a half ago that this approach does not pass, so what will happen will waste the time and opportunity of co-operation institutions and co-ordination with the best possible way because wills have existed. So, I'm deeply convinced that this approach cannot be passed, will definitely pass, and will definitely become the creation of internal mechanisms because it is also our assessment and will become the permanent self-sonic. We can go through ad-hop alone processes every five years, 10, 15 years can't stand the system. The system wants guarantees, no one becomes part of the system by calculating which party to come to power will veto, not us need the internal verification mechanisms in an adequate professional way of candidates for judges who are permanent and we're definitely ready... we're going to lose one and a half year, two years and at the end we're all going to sit on the table to discuss what K's proposed. JCK, changing system laws for the system of justice, the Law for the KDR, for courts, for disciplinary responsibility these are mechanisms I cannot get beyond this”, he stressed.

Zogaj said that the KDR's opposition should never be seen as a challenge to someone, but as an attempt to preserve what is hard-built in this system.

The “has followed an unacceptable approach to the KRC because it has gone to the last option without testing and without assessing other options and this rejection of the Council now after Venice's opinion does not come because it has become a veto of the KRC, absolutely not, because all Council members would be willing to perform the judiciary and an advanced system, all would be voluntarily willing to release the position they have in the judicial system, but we need the assessment why a constitutional change should occur to make a change to its members or other members of courts without testing the answers to the Council of the Council, which were also in the framework of the Council and the Council of Kosovo judiciary. Never should opposition be seen as the challenge of the current composition of the Judiciary Council that all know that constitutional changes themselves and subsequent acts will take the appropriate period and perhaps all will complete the mandate, is not that concern, concern is to preserve what is highly constructed”, says KDK leader.

Regarding differences between the KDR and the Ministry of Justice, the head of this Council, Albert Zogaj, says unfortunately there are more protest institutions and not concrete actions that would affect improving the state of the judiciary in Kosovo.

All institutions should be respected by constitutional and legal responsibilities by respecting the independence of institutions. Absolutely no, no kind of reluctance and criticism for people who protest it is not natural for the institution to protest, institutions take action, take measures, implement healthy policies for the development of their institutions and responsibilities. So, we here unfortunately have more of a kind of protest of institutions through another institution and not concrete actions for improving the situation in the judiciary, in this context I don't see the language that institutions use with their replicas, otherwise objections are common. However, it should be stressed that despite this we have had good communication with the MD, even after joint initiatives, the Judiciary Council is open and we have really backed all the MD “initiatives, he says of Kosovas.

The judicial system in Kosovo is constantly criticised for delays in the treatment of subjects and long expectations of the parties. But, on this issue, the KDR leader says that handling subjects within the legal deadline has priority.

He has even revealed some of the actions taken as the Council in this regard.

We have advanced five judges in the Supreme Court over a year, and this way we have created sufficient capacity and preconditions for the Supreme Court to play its constitutional and legal role in determining the standards of legal practices in the system. At the same time, we've been working very hard with the Court of Appeals only in the 1 year period and 16 judges have advanced, we always remember that there have been several pensions, but we have five judges in the process who will be recruited, respectively, will advance by the end of the year. We've been working with the Supreme Court Special Chamber, while for the first-level courts, we recruited a process that had 49 judges now in the original program... So all of this is a maximum effort of the system that is definitely going to have a different performance of the system when we add to this the regulation for norms when it's precisely known so it can be measured exactly how much judicial performance we believe that we're on a good track but we say that our capacities are still not enough to reach the level of first degree in our courts to address issues within six months of principle to deal with this”, Zogaj said.

Zogaj also said that penal policy in the judiciary needs improvements and that they are working in this respect as well.