After months of conflict with the government and Prime Minister Edi Rama himself, the judiciary’s governance makes the decision on the salaries of magistrates in the country.
At this Wednesday’s meeting, members of the High Judicial Council decided to increase the reference salary of every judge in the country by 65,600 lek, or over 40% of their salary.
According to the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, taken with 9 votes in favor and none against, starting from August 1, 2026, each judge’s salary will increase to 222,425 lek, from 156,800 lek previously, plus a qualification level supplement of 14,000 lek.
Also, the proposal to compensate for the missing increase from April 1, 2023 to July 31 of this year was approved.
This is the first time that the High Judicial Council intervenes to increase the salaries of magistrates, which have always been determined in the law on the status of judges and prosecutors.
The intervention of the Supreme Court came after the Assembly refused to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court in February 2026, which overturned the legal amendments of 2023, which set the magistrate’s salary at 0.36% of the salary of the President of the Republic, with the argument that there was a hidden reduction and this was unconstitutional.
The High Judicial Council states that the decision of the Constitutional Court is binding and determined the increase in the salaries of judges. The decision of the HJC, based on the reasoning of the Constitutional Court, brings a significant increase in the salaries of magistrates, as well as compensation for what was described as a “hidden reduction”, caused by the legal amendment of 2023, ‘On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania'”.
This decision by the High Judicial Council is expected to bring new controversies among institutions, as according to the law, salaries can only be increased by the Council of Ministers or the Parliament.
According to experts, the Treasury Department must approve salaries every month. If the new salary list of judges, after the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, is higher than the salary fund already approved under the old law, a conflict will arise.
The Treasury cannot pay more money than has been budgeted without a decision by the government or the assembly, or the head of the institution.