Thursday 04:43
The Examiner
by Renada Bici, Legal Desk On May 7, 2026, a letter signed by David McAllister, in his capacities as Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European People’s Party, was addressed to Marta Kos, Commissioner for Enlargement. The letter relayed an account submitted on April 30 by Jorida …
The Examiner
Sali Berisha used Europe Day to attack the European Union’s ambassador in Tirana. Brussels responded the same day. The pattern is now legible. Ardit Rada There is a question that has hovered over Albanian politics for the better part of a year, and for some observers for considerably longer. It is not a question …
The Examiner
The Commission cleared Albania’s IBAR. North Macedonia changed its name. Yet Johann Wadephul’s enlargement vision leaves untouched the architecture that allows member states to convert technical compliance into permanent political suspension. by Albatros Rexhaj (Tirana) Albania finished its homework. North Macedonia gave away its name. The Commission cleared Tirana’s IBAR. Berlin’s foreign minister offered …
The Examiner
On the International Vocabulary That Misclassifies the Country by Albatros Rexhaj (Tirana) The international commentary on Albania, in its English-language form, has acquired a vocabulary the country does not deserve. The vocabulary borrows from the conversation about Hungary, from the conversation about Serbia, from the conversation about hybrid regimes and democratic backsliding and captured …
The Examiner
What an Empirical Audit Adds, and What Single-Source Evaluation Costs Tirana Examiner Between March 1 and May 5 of this year, a Tirana-based monitoring service recorded 4,536 political articles published by 43 Albanian outlets. Within that corpus, opposition figures received 1,828 mentions against 925 for the prime minister and the government combined. Sali Berisha …
The Examiner
What began as a reform to break impunity has produced a system where imbalance is built into the structure itself: the courtroom no longer functions as a space of neutral adjudication, but as one shaped by institutional asymmetry—one that doctrine alone cannot fix. by Renada Bici (Legal Examiner Desk) Skënder Minxhozi’s recent commentary on …
The Examiner
by Skënder Minxhozi (Tirana) As expected, the Joint Colleges unanimously approved the commendable initiative of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sokol Sadushi, to unify judicial decisions related to pre-trial detention measures. It is a delayed but essential step, given the scandalous overcrowding of Albanian prisons with individuals who have not been convicted. …
The Examiner
Tirana Examiner, Legal Desk For fifteen years, the standard governing pretrial detention in Albania asked whether “arrest në burg” was suitable for the case. As of May 4, 2026, it asks whether any less restrictive measure would suffice. The Joint Chambers of the High Court issued the full reasoning of their April 9 decision in …
The Examiner
by Renada Bici (Legal Examiner Desk) An Albanian state institution received a foreign Justice Minister at its headquarters on 29 April. The Albanian Foreign Ministry was not informed. The episode is unusual in its visibility, less so in its dynamic. It illustrates what happens to independent institutions when their domestic legitimacy comes to depend …
