On 26 April 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Working Group of Kosovo on the functioning of the judicial and prosecutorial system presented its Policy Paper to support the elaboration of the new MOJ’s Sector Strategy on the Rule of Law which take due account of recommendations made in the framework of the Project “Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Kosovo (KoSEJ)“.

Several of the measures proposed refer to the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) methodology and tools for the collection and analysis of judicial statistics to address the backlog in Kosovo courts. It stresses that collecting reliable statistics is an important precondition for sound improvement policies and measures (“what you cannot measure, you cannot improve”). The Working Group also recommends to provide meaningful analysis by monitoring issues that affect the overall efficiency of courts as defined by standards of CEPEJ indicators of court performance (clearance rate, age of the pending cases, length of the proceedings, case per judge indicator) as well as in particular periods of inactivity and postponed hearings. In light of these successful results of the KoSEJ Action in the MOJ Functional Review process, the CEPEJ will continue to provide assistance with the implementation of these key orientations in a second phase of the Action.

The KoSEJ Action “Strengthening the Quality and Efficiency of Justice in Kosovo”, which is part of the programme entitled "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey", co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.

• Link to the press release of the Ministry of Justice of Kosovo
• More information about the KoSEJ Action

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.