IMO-III International Monitoring Operation - Phase III, ADC co-financing



Contract partner: Diverse Träger Country: Albanien Funding amount: € 1.500.000,00 Project start: 01.04.2023 End: 31.03.2025

Short Description:

Overall goal


The project aims to increase the professional quality of judges and prosecutors, reduce the impact of organized crime, politics and corruption in the delivery of justice, and enhance the integrity and accountability of judiciary institutions. The overall objective of the project is to support Albania to enhance integrity, independence, and accountability of the justice system.


Expected results


1. IMO reports to the European Commission, the EU Delegation to Tirana, and to the IMO Board in a timely and consistent manner.

2. IMO carries out its mandate in an efficient and consistent manner.


Target group / Beneficiaries


The target group includes, in total 805 Albanian judges and prosecutors who, based on the vetting law, are being re-evaluated on the basis of integrity, ethical background and professional competence. The vetting organs were able to re-evaluate about 450 Albanian judges and prosecutors by January 2023 (these cases are already finalized). During IMO III, the remaining 355 Albanian judges and prosecutors have yet to be re-evaluated. Indirect beneficiaries of the project are the Albanian citizens, who – as a consequence of the vetting process and the work of the IMO – will benefit from reduced levels of corruption within the justice system in Albania, which will ultimately restore public confidence and trust in the judiciary.


Activities


The IMO deploys International Observers to monitor the entire re-evaluation process, through a long-term operation that will last until all members of the judiciary in Albanian have undergone the transitional qualification assessment. Based on their Constitutional mandate, the Observers will monitor the vetting activities:

• Monitoring Investigations

• Monitoring of Hearings

• Recommendations to Appeal

• Formulation of Dissenting Opinions

• Monitoring of Appeals Procedures


Context


The Albanian justice system is facing several challenges, such as integrity, independence, efficiency, accountability and transparency, which has resulted in a lack of public trust in the justice system. Albania therefore embarked on a major justice reform, whereby the existing challenges are being addressed through different interventions. One of the most important aspects is the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors, known as the vetting process, aiming at freeing the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office from corrupted officials. To provide international support and an element of credibility for the vetting process, the International Monitoring Operation (IMO) was set up to monitor the entire process of the re-evaluation. The IMO is led by the European Commission (EC) and as IMO’s second phase (IMO II) is coming to an end in March 2023, both the EU and ADA support the continuation of the re-evaluation process under the third phase of IMO (IMO III).

This Delegated Cooperation project with the EU is co-funded by the EU with EUR 9,7 mio. (ADC project reference number 6548-00/2023).

project number 6548-01/2023
source of funding OEZA
sector Staatsführung & Zivilgesellschaft, allgemein
tied
modality Project-type interventions
marker Democracy: 2
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
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