Albanian government has approved the new court map, at a time when lawyers are protesting and boycotting court sessions as a sign of their objection. 

In his statement, the Minister of Justice, Ulsi Manja said that the map is a joint proposal with the High Council of Justice (KLGJ) and its implementation will be done in stages. 

"The new judicial map has been approved, 3000 courts of first instance, 1 Court of Appeal and 2 Administrative Courts of first instance. Important for the implementation of the reform in justice. The new judicial map is a joint proposal of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice. 

It is the product of a group of experts of the KLGJ, assisted by experts from the Council of Europe and also by other international experts. 

In the courts that will be closed, no judicial service will be affected. The implementation of the map will be done in stages. On February 1, we will have the concentration of the appeal court in Tirana. On May 1st, the first instance courts and on July 1st, the Administrative ones. 

The new judicial map has several innovations, it will make a fair distribution of cases to judges, it will reduce costs, what we have a challenge is that we will use this transitory phase as a period of educating citizens about the new courts", said the Minister of Justice.