The European Union and Council of Europe joint action “Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Albania” (SEJ III) kicked off today the first of a series of trainings for judicial administration staff aiming to improve the collection of the judicial data. The trainings aim at establishing a common conceptual framework and rules on data collection and monitoring of court performance to further improve efficiency of services provided to to the citizens of Albania.

The first round of the trainings is dedicated to the Department of Statistics in the High Judicial Council and it will continue with the national courts in all the levels providing the opportunity for the local staffs to better comprehend and apply the new methodology on collection of judicial data. The trainings have been tailored to provide a comprehensive set of CEPEJ tools and key instruments that will reduce the burden of the courts’ clerks in collecting judicial data and will further support them to use judicial statistics as relevant tools for an efficient management, transparency, and accountability of court activity.

To support this process, the action has provided assistance to the High Judicial Court in drafting the guide “On the collection of data and completion of the charts on statistical data for the measuring and monitoring of the productivity and efficiency of courts”, based on CEPEJ guidelines. The guide was recently approved by the High Judicial Council as a part of “Standard rules for the efficiency of justice”, pursuant to the Law No. 115/2016 On Governance Institutions of the Justice System.

The action “Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Albania” is part of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” programme, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.