Dispute over judges’ salaries deepens as HJC orders Finance Ministry to implement Constitutional Court ruling

The disagreement between the judiciary and the government over the financial compensation of magistrates has entered a new official phase of escalation. The High Judicial Council, in a statement signed by its chair, Ilir Rusi, on September 3, 2026, addressed the Ministry of Finance and the General Directorate of the Treasury, while also notifying the Ministry of Justice, calling for the immediate release and processing of the August 2026 salaries for judges and judicial administration staff.

In the official letter, the HJC explains that the legal and financial framework governing the calculation of magistrates’ salaries changed after the Constitutional Court, in its Decision No. 15 of February 17, 2026, struck down parts of the existing law. Since Parliament failed to approve the legal amendments by the final deadline of July 31, 2026, the HJC adopted Decision No. 435 on August 26 to standardize the implementation of the constitutional obligation, using as its basis the highest managerial salary in the public sector (Category I, Classes 1-2).

The HJC strongly rejects the Finance Ministry’s claims that administrative checks are necessary, stressing that in several judicial districts, including Durrës, Fier and Gjirokastër, payment authorizations approved by the treasury units themselves were later blocked at banking institutions. The judiciary’s governing body emphasizes that neither Parliament, nor the Executive, nor the Ministry of Finance has the authority to block or challenge the binding force of Constitutional Court decisions, as such an intervention directly undermines Article 132 of the Constitution and the very principle of the rule of law.

According to the HJC’s argument, the legislature’s failure to act does not give the government the right to suspend the effects of the Constitutional Court’s order or undermine the protection of judges’ inviolable salaries. In the final section of the letter, the HJC formally calls on the Ministry of Finance to proceed without delay with the payment of August salaries for all judicial administration employees who are not covered by this decision, as well as to transfer the salaries of judges at all three levels of the judicial system.