The EU4Justice project reaffirms its commitment to supporting the High Prosecutorial Council (HPC) in Albania, focusing on enhancing the efficiency of ethical and professional performance evaluations for prosecutors. On 21 May 2025, the project supported the HPC to organize a roundtable titled “Data Quality and Accuracy, and Reporting on Evaluation of Prosecutors.” This significant event convened members of the HPC, HPC legal advisors involved in the evaluation process, representatives from the General Prosecution Office (GPO), heads of prosecution offices, the Information Technology Centre for the Justice System, and EU4Digital Justice project.

The Chair of the HPC and the Director of the Institutional Coordination Directorate at the GPO highlighted data digitalization’s role in improving procedures, collaboration, and career development of prosecutors.

The EU4Justice Team Leader reaffirmed the project’s strong support for the Council and the prosecutorial system, aiming to improve the efficiency of the evaluation process. The roundtable facilitated extensive dialogue on the challenges faced in data collection and processing within prosecution offices. A notable focus was placed on the integration of information technology into evaluation processes. The short-term experts of the EU4Justice project shared valuable insights from Italian datasets related to the professional evaluation of prosecutors. Their contributions shed light on critical data quality aspects and offered practical short-term solutions to bridge current system gaps until the anticipated electronic system is fully operational.

Representatives exchanged and acknowledged on-the-ground challenges and attempted to present actionable solutions. In response to the absence of a comprehensive electronic case management system, participants proposed several interim solutions. Proposed interim solutions include implementing a unified format for all prosecution offices to collect and process evaluation data, potentially using semi-automated tools like Excel, defining clear timelines for the commencement of data collection, entry, and processing to ensure readiness ahead of formal evaluation procedures, and simplifying data requirements by reducing the complexity of data tables required for prosecutor evaluations. Additionally, the possibility of approving a new registry solely for recording evaluation-related data could be explored by the General Prosecution Office, alongside considering additional personnel in prosecution offices to manage data entry and processing efficiently.

To build on the momentum of this roundtable, a follow-up training session on ‘Data Entry, Processing, and Reporting regarding Evaluation of Prosecutors’ will be held on 10 June 2025. This training will target key personnel involved in evaluation processes, including chancellors, secretaries, members of the HPC Evaluation Standing Committee, HPC legal advisors, and IT experts. The goal is to enhance data management practices, thereby ensuring more accurate and efficient evaluation procedures.

EU4JUSTICE is an EU Contribution Agreement Project implemented by AICS, Expertise France, and FIIAPP.  The project’s overall objective is the improvement of the capacity of the independent justice institutions in Albania.