Albania is well on track to join the 27-strong European Union, with accession possibly coming as soon as 2030.
The country has been widely lauded and highly praised by the EU and others for the speed and efficiency with which it has, so far, closed negotiating “chapters” and also the progress it has made on implementing reforms deemed necessary to join the EU club.
Indeed, Albania has been hailed as a frontrunner among the several Balkans nations lined up for possible EU membership.
But the country also continues to have one of the highest rates of pre‑trial detention (PTD) in Europe. As of November 2025 its prison population stood at 4,578 with 58 pc in PTD. Its rate of 94.6 detainees per 100,000 inhabitants is 4 to 5 higher than the EU average. This contributes to overcrowding in many detention centres and underscores the need to reduce its reliance on this controversial measure.
Some have argued that the continued use of PTD even calls into question its current credentials for EU membership.
There is one case, in particular, that is now being highlighted.
The story of the Mayor of the Albanian capital, Tirana, has been something of a slow burner which has failed, thus far, to ignite much media attention outside of the country.
But the case of Erion Veliaj is now starting to start tongues wagging at the very heart of the EU machinery.
Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius, a member of parliament’s influential bureau, has a key role when it comes to EU expansion: the deputy is the European parliament’s rapporteur on enlargement.
Speaking to this site, the MEP said, “The case of Erin Veliaj proves as Albania has still to make major progress towards an effectively working judicial system with impartiality and well working legal defence. While Veliaj was lately given access to his case evidence file, it already constitutes a breach in the country’s judicial system, with elements of pressure and use (by) the special services,” added the deputy, a member of Renew Europe, one of the mainstream political groupings in the EU parliament and a member of its foreign affairs committee.
Veliaj has been in pre-trial detention since his 2025 arrest on alleged corruption charges, which he resolutely denies, which were issued by the Special Agency against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK).
His advocates claim he is being detained for political reasons and are calling for Albania’s government to “respect the rule of law.”
Despite being held since February of last year the three-time mayor was only recently allowed access to thousands of court papers which, he says, are vital to his defence.
But it is the broader issue of PTD that’s also come under the spotlight.
Human Rights Without Frontiers International (Brussels), a respected and long established Brussels based rights NGO, now wants action to address the twin issues of his continued detention and PTD.
It says it is “deeply concerned” by the handling of the Veliaj case.
Referring to the case, HRWF director Willy Fautre said, “Many criticisms have been voiced from various ends of the political spectrum in Albania, including from political opponents like former Justice Minister Ylli Manjani. The prosecution is said to be flawed and politically motivated but as Albania is a candidate to the European Union, uncertainties and doubts about a possible failure of Albania to abide by the EU fair trial standards cannot continue. International observers are needed.”
He goes on, “Human Rights Without Frontiers International recommends that the European Parliament sends a delegation of observers and has a dialogue with the various parties. The Council of Europe also needs to be invited to monitor the progress, or lack of it, of Albania’s justice system.”
He added, “Human Rights Without Frontiers International would also be ready to investigate the issue and to report in Brussels.”
In January, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe convened representatives from the judiciary, prosecution services, the Albanian parliament and others for a conference in Tirana to address the challenges posed by the “disproportionate” use of PTD in Albania and to explore paths towards reform.
Former Albanian justice minister Besfort Lamallari reportedly said that “excessive use” of PTD is “not just a statistical problem but a fundamental problem of human rights, the presumption of innocence and the proportionality of state intervention.”
Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law at the CoE, reportedly said that, under European Court of Human Rights case law, PTD must be subject to “strict scrutiny” to ensure that any deprivation of liberty is “lawful, necessary and proportionate.” Such safeguards protect the presumption of innocence and PTD should remain “a measure of last resort,” he said.
International experts called for strict limits on the duration of PTD and the CoE said it stands ready to “support the process and to work constructively with all actors involved.”
Some have contrasted the CoE position on the issue with that, so far, of the European parliament.
The EU parliament issued a draft report on Albania (and other Balkan candidate countries) in mid-February but made no mention of PTD.
It did, though, re-state that Albania, which,if current progress continues, hopes to join the EU by as soon as 2030, “must further consolidate its track record of investigations, prosecutions and final convictions, particularly in high-level corruption cases.”
Earlier this month (March), Kasowitz LLP, a law firm, issued a report in what, it calls “the fundamental due process defects” underlying Veliaj’s continued detention.
The report highlights what it also calls attempts by the prosecutor – Albania’s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) – to “impair Mayor Veliaj’s right to a fair trial.”
There is also some criticism of the alleged treatment the mayor has received by SPAK throughout the process coming from bipartisan and expert sources. The Albanian government is on record as saying it “fully supports” SPAK, which has launched cases against high profile figures.
The law firm, though, has alleged the organisation “continues to make spurious arguments to justify his continued PTD” and had cited “his lobbying activities as a basis to prolong his detention.”
“Lobbying, however, is not among the defined criteria to justify the detention of a defendant,” says the law firm.
Daniel Fetterman, a partner at Kasowitz LLP and international counsel to Veliaj, says, “SPAK’s reliance on lawful advocacy and lobbying to justify his continued unlawful detention in Albania is deeply troubling. Petitioning governments and speaking publicly about one’s case is a fundamental democratic right and not a basis for imprisonment or punishment,” he said.
He added, “After more than one year of pre trial detention and other serious due process violations in his case, it is appropriate for the American government – which helped to establish and advise SPAK – to look into what has been going on and why this is occurring,” said Fetterman.
“By letters to the U.S. State Department and Department of Justice, that is exactly what we are asking them to do,” he said.
Some have leapt to the strong defence of SPAK, including Austrian Socialist MEP Andreas Schieder, the EU parliament’s rapporteur on Albania, who recently told this site that the organisation plays a “crucial role” in the fight against corruption in Albania and that this “shows that the Albanian government is taking this task very seriously.”
The deputy said the work of SPAK is “essential to a consequent approach to fulfil required pre-accession reforms.”
Even so, local media is paying increasingly close attention to both the Veliaj case and the use of PTD with Albanian Daily News reporting that the country’s supreme court had launched a review of judicial practices and PTD. This, it says, comes amid growing concern including by “international institutions”, over the use of such practices with the government facing demands for reform so that PTD is applied “only when strictly necessary” and supported by “clear judicial reasoning.”
The Albanian Times says the case against Veliaj, who is a member of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist party, has brought together critics from “opposite ends of Albania’s political spectrum” and the same outlet notes that, on January 30, a joint letter was issued by the “B40 Balkan Cities Network” calling for an end to PTD. The letter calls PTD a “dangerous trend.”
Balkan Insight, meanwhile, recently revealed possible government plans to limit the powers of SPAK which, it notes was created back in 2016 with the support of the EU and US as part of Albania’s wider efforts to join the EU.
It says that, until recently, the government insisted it would not interfere in justice cases and had refused to comment on officials facing trial.
This, states the outlet, changed in the wake of another high profile case: Albania’s Deputy Prime Minister Mrs Belinda Balluku,who is charged with interfering in public procurement procedures.
She strongly and resolutely denies any wrongdoing.
Some have contrasted the two cases, Balluku and Veliaj, claiming that while the government was “quick” to grant immunity for Mrs Balluku, it had been relatively silent on Veliaj.It has been alleged that, in the case of Mrs Balluku, the government sought to grant her immunity against prosecution by legislation.In the mayor’s case, it is further alleged, even though he was elected directly to office, “little or no effort” was made to protect him. This site has reached out to the government for comment but, to date, received no reply.
Last September Euronews Albania reported that the Council of Ministers had dismissed Veliaj from his position as Tirana’s Mayor but, in November, Balkan Insight further reported that the Albanian Constitutional Court had then ruled in favour of Veliaj, overturning the Council of Ministers’ decision.
The Veliaj case is now rapidly moving up the political agenda with Hashtag.al last month reporting that former justice minister Ylli Manjani, formerly a political opponent, had said the mayor’s continued detention seems “beyond legal and procedural logic.”
Supporters of the mayor are encouraged by a Supreme Court review of judicial practices, including PTD, and the next step in this long-running saga is Valaij’s hearing against his detention, due to be heard by the Constitutional Court on May 20.
All this comes with the clock ticking on Albania’s hitherto acclaimed accession process, something the EU has, generally, embraced with much enthusiasm. EU council president Antonio Costa has said Albania’s accession to the Union is “our common goal” and that is a view shared by numerous other EU political figures.
After last December’s EU-Western Balkans summit, President Costa said, “Albania has managed to open all negotiating clusters in a very short time, the last ones just in November. Next year (2026) will be their moment of truth to accelerate reforms.”
At a key enlargement summit in November, President Costa also said, “Albania has put in a huge amount of work and has greatly accelerated progress in it accession path.”
One Brussels based expert on the Western Balkans said, “Albania has made great and impressive progress towards membership but, at present, it’s a shame that such cases are casting something of a shadow over its current EU credentials.”
Speaking to this site, a European Commission official said, “The EU attaches great importance to the rule of law and fundamental rights, including the right to a fair trial. The Commission monitors and reports on progress in this area in the context of the EU accession negotiations. This includes the use of pre-trial detention, which was discussed recently during the Justice, Freedom and Security Subcommittee between the EU and Albania.
“The Commission will continue to closely monitor and support the consolidation of the rule of law and fundamental rights in Albania, as part of the European integration process of the country and will continue to discuss with the Albanian authorities the proper alignment with the relevant European standards in this area,” added the official.
NB: This website has made repeated attempts to contact both SPAK and the Albania government but, at the time of going to press, had received no reply from either.