Press Release

The General Prosecution of Albania, Mr. Adriatik Llalla, presents a series of trainings on Rules of Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for Prosecutors. The document was designed with the assistance of the OPDAT mission and summarizes the European Union’s norms.

The General Prosecution of Albania, Mr. Adriatik Llalla, opened the series of training for the recognition and enforcement of the Rules of Conduct, a document which was approved in June 2014, and which summarizes the principles for strengthening the integrity of Albanian prosecutors.
New Code of Ethics, unlike that which existed since 2005, has already provided obligations to be implemented by all Prosecutors, associated with disciplinary penalties at violations of its norms.
The new Code of Ethics was drafted with the assistance of the OPDAT mission of the United States of America and there are embodied the Western demands for the integrity of Albanian prosecutors.

General Prosecution, in his opening speech, said that "The Code of Ethics defines the principles, norms and guidelines of ethics and behavior of prosecutors to secure and guarantee the professionalism, independence, impartiality, honesty, integrity and fairness in the exercise of their functions ".

In the first training meeting, where were invited Mr. David Griese, the expert of OPDAT mission and Mrs. Kitty Nooy, the Director of the Office of Integrity at the General Prosecution of Netherlands, the prosecutors of Prosecution Office of Judicial District of Tirana, of the Tirana Court of Appeal, and of the Prosecution Office for Serious Crimes were introduced to the new provisions of the Code of Ethics. These trainings will continue in the coming weeks with prosecutors across the country, the regions that cover the Appeals Prosecution in the entire country.
General Prosecution, Mr. Adriatik Llalla said in this first training meeting:

"Prosecution Office of Albania has already a corpus of rules on ethics, which are mandatory and intend to strengthen the integrity of prosecutors.
Drafting of this new code was deemed necessary, because a previous code, approved in 2005, was not functional and had no mandatory norms.
The new code is designed to establish, maintain and strengthen the rules of conduct, as well as to increase efficiency in the exercise of constitutional and legal functions.

This document defines the principles, norms and guidelines of ethics and behavior of prosecutors to secure and guarantee the professionalism, independence, impartiality, honesty, integrity and fairness in the exercise of their functions.
Also, it provides rules to strengthen institutional and inter-institutional relations with other subjects of criminal proceedings, the national institutions and international organizations, by avoiding the conflicts of interest and maintaining the professional secrecy, in the interest of criminal justice and of increase of public confidence in the prosecution organ.

Besides institutional obligations, the new code of ethics comes to fulfil the recommendations of GRECO, which suggested to the Prosecution Office of Albania to draft a document that meets the standards of the European Union.
The fourth round of GRECO evaluation has had as object, preventing corruption for MPs, judges and prosecutors. Ethics and integrity have been the focus of the GRECO monitoring as an important tool in preventing corruption.

Soon, it will have some changes in the evaluation form of prosecutors, where will be provided a special section to evaluate the ethical qualities of the prosecutor, defining objective and transparent criteria.
In this context, thanks to the support and assistance of the OPDAT mission of the United States of America and personally to Mr. David Gris that is here today, in June 2014, was approved the Code of Ethics, in which there are materialized Western demands for the integrity of Albanians prosecutors.

Meanwhile, starting from today, through the support of OPDAT again, we are beginning the training meetings, which will be held with all the prosecutors in Albania.
At this meeting opener, we have the honour to be present Mrs. Kitty Nooy, the Director of the Office of Integrity at the General Prosecution of Netherlands.

Her office has established a very good reputation in the European Union headquarters to strengthen the integrity of prosecutors.
For this reason, we appreciate that her presentation in Tirana will be very interesting for the audience. This is also the opinion of a group of Prosecution Office of Albania, who a few months ago were welcomed and trained by Mrs. Nooy and its staff in Hague.
Series of training on the rules of ethics will start in a symbolic moment, namely in the International Day against Corruption.
Code of Ethics and especially its rigorous implementation would help that the symbolism of this day to be normal standard in the activity of the Prosecution Office of Albania. "

Date 9/12/2014