Category: Uncategorized

21-22 September 2021
Sirius Hotel

EUKOJUST has been working with the Legal Office within the Office of the Prime Minister (LO-OPM) for the last four months to review the existing rules on standards of drafting of legislative acts in Kosovo. Following a thorough analysis provided by EUKOJUST on the Administrative Instruction on Standards of Drafting of Normative Acts (AI), EUKOJUST provided the LO-OPM with a new draft AI with the view of aligning it with the Draft Law on Legal Acts. The latter one has received a positive opinion from the Venice Commission and it seeks to regulate for the first time in Kosovo the hierarchy of legal acts, the types of legal acts, issues of delegation with respect to sub-legal acts, consolidation and correction of legislation and main principles of drafting of legal acts. The Draft AI introduces several novelties such as the main rules on the types of acts which seek to amend legislation, rules on the drafting of legal opinions, rules on the delegation in respect of sub-legal acts, rules on approximation with the EU acquis, rules on citation and reference on other legislation, rules on consolidation of legislation etc. The Draft AI is conceptualized as an instruction accompanied by a Manual on Standards of Drafting of Legal Acts which includes more detailed rules and concrete examples for all the topics covered by the AI.

Given the importance of these two pieces of legislation, EUKOJUST and the LO-OPM organized a two-days workshop to intensively work on the finalization of these two pieces of legislation. This is the first one in a series of workshops planned to be organized with the final aim of reforming the standards of legal drafting, establishing a methodology for legal consolidation and initiating a process of legal cleaning in Kosovo.

Third Steering Committee meeting of EUKOJUST Project was held today on 26th July 2021. This meeting was chaired by KPC Chair, Mr. Jetish Maloku and co-chaired by the EUKOJUST Team Leader, Mr. Volkmar Theobald.

The meeting was attended by the following voting members of the Steering Committee: Ms. Nita Shala – Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice (online participation), Mr. Albert Zogaj – Chair of the Judicial Council, Mr. Enver Peci – President of the Supreme Court, Mr. Enver Fejzullahu – Director of the Academy of Justice, Ms. Edi Gusia – CEO of the Agency for Gender Equality, Ms. Vlora Maxhuni – appointed from the Office of the Prime Minister, and Mr. Fehmi Stublla – appointed from the Official Gazette. EU Office representative, Ms. Julia Jacoby was also present at the meeting and contributed to the discussion.

The key topics of discussion were the activities and achievements of the Project during the period April – June 2021.

This meeting was observed online by representatives of foreign embassies in Kosovo, local institutions, and international organizations.

EUKOJUST project, in compliance with its mandate among other objectives, is tasked to provide support to the Correctional and Probation Services, by strengthening the functionality of the service, improving its internal procedures and assist in raising awareness of the EU and international standards and best practices.

In order to provide this support, EUKOJUST has carried out a screening of the current situation, analyzing the workload of employees, internal procedures, and assessing employees’ administrative capacity.

EUKOJUST Expert presented today the preliminary findings of this analyze to the main stakeholders. Representatives from Ministry of Justice, the Correctional and Probation Services, the EU Office in Kosovo, the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, as well other interested partners attended the Roundtable.

The presentation of the analysis was followed by a fruitful discussion which confirmed the findings of the gap analysis, but also pointed out some other important aspects to be considered, such as anti-corruption, interoperability in different systems, especially with NCCR, strengthening introductory training for new employees, video links between prisons and courts to hold remote hearings, strengthening vocational training etc.

After an important contribution and exchange of ideas of those present, the discussion ended with a conclusion on what should EUKOJUST project focus in the upcoming period in order to strengthen the Correctional and Probation Service.

The correct use of the official languages in judicial and prosecutorial systems in Kosovo is of outmost importance to guarantee international fair trial standards and access to justice for all. 

With the support of the Office of Language Commissioner and together with the Language Units at Kosovo Judicial Council (KJC), and Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC), EUKOJUST assessed the quality and the efficiency of translations of the non-majority languages for judicial and prosecutorial systems. 

The main findings of the report were presented today in front of key stakeholders and beneficiaries. Participants of the conference also discussed ways to improve the support provided to KJC and KPC by the international stakeholders in terms of capacity building to interpreters and translators. 

The report, drafted by the EUKOJUST Access to Justice Expert, Alina Matache, recommends amendment of the existing regulation on certified translators and interpreters or eventually drafting a new Regulation that will provide norms and standards with the view to improve quality of such services 

Prishtina, 23 June 2021 – The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC), supported by the EU Project, EUKOJUST, has organized a two-day workshop on drafting the Regulation on the management of the work process through the electronic CMIS system in the prosecutorial system.

In the introductory speech of this workshop, the Chairman of the KPC, Jetish Maloku, said that the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council has set a high priority for CMIS, setting it as a specific objective in the Strategic Plan of the Council and in the other relevant documents of the prosecutorial system.

Chairman Maloku, further, said that with the drafting and approval of this regulation, in addition to planning to determine the way of managing the work process, at the same time, this act will affect the unification of all procedures and increase efficiency and expressed his gratitude to the EUKOJUST Project regarding the financial support for the organization of this workshop and other activities in the field of information technology.

Whereas, the Chairman of the Commission for Normative Issues of KPC, prosecutor Armend Zenelaj, said that this workshop will result in a good draft of this regulation.

This workshop was also welcomed by the representative of the EUKOJUST Project, Arben Isufi.

This workshop is attended by the Chairman of the KPC, members of the standing committees of the KPC, chief prosecutors, and prosecutors, representatives of international organizations, administrators of the prosecution and other officials of the prosecutorial system.