Luigi Soreca, with superlatives for SPAK/ Message for justice institutions

2023-11-15 18:29:00, Aktualitet CNA

Luigi Soreca, with superlatives for SPAK/ Message for justice institutions

The Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union in Tirana, Luigi Soreca

The Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union in Tirana, Luigi Soreca, spoke at the end of his duty about corruption in Šiper and about justice reforms.

Soreca said in an interview for Voice of America that the phenomenon of corruption is serious, but according to him justice has made progress after the creation of SPAK.

He called on SPAK and the justice authorities to continue their work to fight the culture of impunity without political pressure and interference.

"When I see the serious phenomenon of corruption, with my experience I always try to see the long term. Get a helicopter and look at the long term. Look at the justice reform. When I came in 2018, we were in the center of implementation. I want to tell you an anecdote. When I returned again in September this year, in Rinas I looked at the TV screen and saw a news in small print that the 18th and 19th members of the Supreme Court had been appointed. The next day I was looking at the newspapers that had it as news and it had passed almost unnoticed. I remember the period when the appointment of the sixth, seventh, eighth judge was seen as a great achievement. Now, this normality, which should be the rule, shows us how progress has been made.

This is just an anecdote to tell you that if you look at the long term, progress has been made. Is it enough? Absolutely not. Corruption is still present, it is a serious concern for us, and as stated in the Report, it must be treated seriously, including cases of high-level corruption. SPAK has certainly made progress and this is welcomed in the report, including dealing with cases of high level corruption and we support these actions.

We invite SPAK and all justice authorities to continue working in this direction to create a sustainable track record to fight the culture of impunity without political pressure and without interference. Of course they will have the authorities of justice on their side.

I also think that the financial investigation should continue to be one of the objectives of the action of the justice authorities, because it has been proven that this is the way forward. I use the words "Follow the money" because this comes from previous experience, but I think it is very important for this process to be stable and continue in the long term", he said.

The ambassador spoke with superlatives about SPAK, as he said that he is implementing his mandate, carrying out punishments of high-level persons.

"I think that SPAK is implementing its mandate and it is doing so by examining cases of high-level corruption. We also had the first high-level punishments recently, of former ministers.

I think it is important that the work continues completely, with a clear direction, so that Albanian citizens understand that the very serious reform that has been carried out since 2016 in the field of justice is really bringing results", emphasized Soreca./ CNA