The Joint Council of Europe and European Union Project “Support to Efficiency of Justice – SEJ” which started in January (duration being 24 moths), will focus on supporting and assisting judicial authorities in developing an efficient court system, in line with the Justice Reform Strategy of Albania and European standards. This will be pursued through the application of the tools and methodology developed by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and capacity-building of key players in the field of the judiciary and court staff.

The Project aims at achieving the following expected results:

• The efficiency and effectiveness of courts and court proceedings are enhanced;
• The status, organisation and professionalism of court staff are improved;
• The quality of the public service of justice and courts is improved.

The Project activities, inter alia, include:

• In-depth assessment of the Albanian judicial system;
• Extending the CEPEJ Court Coaching Programme on the SATURN Guidelines on judicial time  management to all Albanian courts;
• Improving the collection and analysis of judicial statistics for policy-making purposes;
• Strengthening capacity of the High Council of Justice and Judicial Inspectorate;
• Analysis of court organisation and court administrators’ capacity;
• Review of the training modules for judges and court staff;
• Capacity-building of the School of Magistrates;
• Study visits of the Constitutional Court staff to the European Court of Human Rights;
• Court satisfaction surveys carried out in selected 10 Albanian courts, and court plans developed   accordingly;
• Improving the accessibility of the public to court decisions;
• Improving the relationship between the courts and the media.