A dispute over judges’ and prosecutors’ pay in Albania has implications for judicial independence, experts say. A long-simmering conflict between the Albanian government and the country’s judges and prosecutors over pay is taking on an increasingly political dimension.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has strongly opposed judges’ and prosecutors’ demands for substantial pay rises, claiming that such increases would leave them better paid than their counterparts in wealthier countries such as Romania, Greece and Slovenia.
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Rama says judges and prosecutors have no right to challenge the established practice under which the government sets salaries, provided they are approved by parliament.
In February, however, the Constitutional Court ordered parliament to adopt a new pay formula by July 31, following a complaint filed by the Union of Albanian Judges challenging changes made in 2023 to the law on the status of judges and prosecutors.
On September 18, a law providing for a two per cent pay rise was passed.
Judges and prosecutors said this was not enough. They returned to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the increase did not comply with the Court’s original ruling, under which their salaries should rise in line with those of the highest-ranking government and public-sector officials. A new ruling is expected.
In 2016, as part of a broader reform of the justice system, parliament passed legislation on judges’ and prosecutors’ pay. The new system began operating in 2019, but in 2023 the government changed the formula, stipulating that judges’ and prosecutors’ salaries be calculated on the basis of the average salary in the public administration rather than the salaries of the highest-ranking state officials.
Legal experts have accused the government of politicising the pay issue.
“A responsible government should not have set itself against judges by trying to foster the public perception that ‘greedy judges’ were demanding pay rises,” said Gentian Serjani, head of a non-governmental organisation called Social Justice. “It should have done the opposite: apologised for failing to implement a Constitutional Court ruling.”
The board of the European Association of Judges also expressed concern about the failure to comply with the Constitutional Court’s ruling, calling it a “violation of the Constitution itself”.
Arnisa Tepelija, a researcher focused on the rule of law, justice and constitutional law, said the issue was not just about pay.
“This issue goes beyond a pay dispute and touches on the safeguards of judicial independence, making it a profoundly constitutional matter,” Tepelija told BIRN.
“The Constitutional Court analysed the issue in light of Article 138 of the Constitution, which prohibits reductions in a judge’s salary and other benefits except in expressly specified cases. According to the Court, protecting salaries from reduction is a constitutional safeguard intended to protect not only the individual interests of judges but, above all, the independence of the judiciary itself in relation to other branches of government.”
“Financial remuneration must reflect the importance and dignity of the role and must not be subject to interference that could create dependence or pressure.”
“Climate of mistrust”
Justice reform is one of the main pillars of Albania’s European Union integration process, as the country works to meet criteria for strengthening the rule of law and intensifying the fight against corruption.
The justice reform process, which began in 2015, has led to the creation of specialised institutions empowered to investigate and try senior public officials for corruption and related criminal offences. This has, however, caused friction between the judiciary and the government, and the pay dispute emerged against a backdrop of already strained relations between them.
Prime Minister Rama, who is serving an unprecedented fourth consecutive term, has not hesitated to criticise the judicial system on social media since the February 2025 arrest of one of his close allies, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, on corruption charges.
Rama began singling out individual judges and prosecutors, posting their photographs on social media and accusing them of failing to uphold the law. The National Association of Judges responded by saying his actions “contained elements of a criminal offence”.
Judges’ representatives also criticised Rama over alleged interference and pressure on the judiciary in the case involving his deputy prime minister, Belinda Balluku, who is accused of interfering in public procurement procedures. The National Association of Judges warned that this could “create a climate of mistrust toward the judiciary”.
Critics also argue that Rama’s interventions risk undermining the democratic separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary, as well as setting back Albania’s path toward EU membership.
“Attacking judges, prosecutors and justice institutions creates the perception that the prime minister has the right to judge and dictate how justice should operate,” said analyst Lutfi Dervishi.
According to Gëzim Spahiu, a prosecutor and head of the Association of Prosecutors of Albania, the pay issue “is not simply a debate about the size of a pay rise or the privileges of a particular group”.
“It is directly linked to the implementation of a constitutional standard set by the Constitutional Court itself and, moreover, to a fundamental principle of the rule of law: the independence of the justice system, of which magistrates’ pay and status are essential elements.”
“It is equally important that the public debate should not seek, as an end in itself, to pit magistrates against the public by portraying them as a group seeking privileges at the expense of society’s interests,” Spahiu told BIRN.
