Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama commented indirectly on Monday the clash between Prosecutor General, Adriatik Llalla and U.S. Ambassador, Donald Lu, saying that the judicial reform is for ordinary Albanian people.

“The vetting law is not for me, nor for the U.S. ambassador or Prosecutor General…Vetting is for ordinary people of this country that will finally be released from the clutches of corrupt judges and prosecutors,” Rama said.

Rama, addressing a meeting in capital Tirana, said that the Judicial reform is for the people to find justice at the gates of courts and to make the state apparatus function.

Rama’s comments on the issue came some days after The U.S. Ambassador accused Albanian Prosecutor General, Adriatik Llala, of being against the judicial reform.

“For more than 18 months he has consistently and loudly spoken against the judicial reform…Last Friday, as required by the new Constitution, there was a lottery for members of the new Judicial Appointments Council, one of several new institutions that will safeguard judicial independence.

The lottery was conducted honorably by the Secretary General of the Parliament, but the Prosecutor General violated the spirit of the Constitution by sending a list of only three prosecutors to fill three positions,” U.S Ambassador in Tirana said.

The Prosecutor General fired back saying that the U.S. Ambassador was trying to blackmail the institution. Albanian Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta backed the Prosecutor General saying that his actions were totally constitutional.

The vetting law is the key component of the judicial reform in the country, one of the most important requests of the European Commission before opening accession negotiations with Albania, a country aspiring to join the European Union.

The EURALIUS, an EU technical assistance project to assist in the consolidation of the justice system in Albania says that the Vetting law will initiate an evaluation process for the judges and prosecutors, members of the Constitutional Court and the High Court, legal advisors in the Constitutional and High Court, legal assistants in the administrative courts and legal assistants in the General Prosecution Office.

“The evaluation process will be based on the assets check, background check (connections with the crime and criminals) and professionalism of the judges and prosecutors,” EURALIUS says in its website./tvklan.al