Euralius

EURALIUS is the European Assistance Mission to the Albanian Justice System.The stated objective of [http://www.euralius.org.al EURALIUS] is "To facilitate, through the building of the required capacities within the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary, the development of a more independent, impartial, efficient, professional, transparent and modern justice system in Albania, therefore contributing to the restoring of people’s confidence in their institutions and to the consolidation of democracy and rule of law in the country, as required by the Stabilisation and Association process with the [http://europa.eu/ EU] ".

EURALIUS (European Assistance Mission to the Albanian Justice System) is a project funded by the European Union under the Albania CARDS 2002 programme. The Contractor of the Grant Agreement No. 2005/103284, which is the basis of the EURALIUS Mission, is the [http://www.bmj.gv.at Ministry of Justice of Austria] , which is implementing the project in a consortium together with the Ministries of Justice of Germany and Italy (for details see consortium partners).

The implementation of the project started on 13 June 2005 and was designed for an initial period of two years. Head of Mission is Gerald Colledani, Vice-President of the Court of Appeal of Innsbruck, Austria. In total the EURALIUS staff consists of 25 persons, of which 9 of them are of international origin from various EU Member States and 16 of Albanian.

Roles:

* Justice Organisation
* Judicial Budgetary Planning and Management
* Law Drafting and Legal Approximation
* Penitentiary Issues
* Enforcement of Rulings
* Case Management and Court Administration

The team of long-term international experts is assisted by Albanian legal experts and administrative staff such as personal assistants/secretaries, one accountant and drivers.

The Mission’s Headquarters are located in Torre Drin, a well-known business and apartment building in the very heart of [Tirana] in close range to many important Albanian public institutions. Besides the Headquarters the Mission operates 3 more side offices in the Albanian Ministry of Justice and the Tirana Court of Appeal situated next to the Judicial Budget office.

Albanian project partners are the Ministry of Justice, the judiciary (courts), the High Council of Justice, the Prosecution, the Judicial Budget Office, the Bailiff’s Office, the School of Magistrates, the Ministry of European Integration, the Judicial Conference, the Ministry of Interior, the People’s Advocate, the Legal Reform Commission, the Albanian Bar Association and the National Chamber of Notaries.

The overall project coordination on Albanian side is performed by the Project Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Justice, headed by Fatos Bundo.