Another clash between institutions has surfaced, this time over salaries in the justice system. The Ministry of Finance denies that payments have been blocked, but blames the deadlock on the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council, claiming that the August payrolls were submitted using a formula that has not yet been approved through legal channels.
Finance Ministry: the problem is not the payment, but the formula used
According to the official version of the Ministry of Finance, the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council submitted the payrolls for August based on a methodology different from the one currently in force.
In a letter addressed to the two institutions, Minister Petrit Malaj asks that the payrolls and expenditure orders be resubmitted under the scheme used through July, arguing that the new changes to magistrates’ salaries have not yet been approved by parliament.
The government leaves the ball to parliament
The ministry argues that Constitutional Court decision No. 15, dated 17.02.2026, is final and binding, but that its implementation, according to the ministry, requires legal intervention that must pass through parliament.
This is the essence of the Finance Ministry’s position: the institution acknowledges the existence of the obligation arising from the Constitutional Court ruling, but says it cannot itself determine the new salary formula without parliamentary approval.
What Malaj is asking from the HJC and HPC
In his response, Petrit Malaj takes a firm position that the Ministry of Finance cannot replace parliament in exercising its normative function, nor determine, through budget execution procedures, the specific salary formula.
For this reason, he asks the HJC and HPC to promptly submit the August payrolls according to the parameters used in July, so that Treasury structures can immediately process the payments.
In the background, the increase determined by the HJC and HPC themselves
The clash did not begin in a vacuum. On August 26, the HJC, and two days later the HPC, set the reference salary for judges and prosecutors themselves, providing for a significant increase.
Their reasoning was that parliament had not approved a new formula by the July 31 deadline, even though, under this interpretation, it had an obligation to act following the Constitutional Court ruling. This is precisely where the core of the institutional conflict lies: who bears responsibility for the practical implementation of the ruling and under what formula the salaries should be processed.
For now, the Ministry of Finance insists that payments can be executed only under the existing parameters, while any new change remains dependent on parliament’s decision-making.
The debate once again highlights institutional delays that, in the end, create financial uncertainty and an open clash between branches of the state.