Twinning project of the European Union: "Further strengthening the Assembly of Albania in the context of EU Accession”

Budget: 500,000 €

Financing program: Twinning

Call: IPA 2014 ACTION PROGRAMME FOR ALBANIA

Funding body: European Commission

Implementing body: HeP - EPIS

Final Beneficiary:   Parliament of the Republic of Albania

Duration: 12 months

Summary

Under the broad institutional reforms in Albania taking place in the framework of EU integration process, the European Commission provides pre-accession assistance to support the reforms contributing to further strengthening of institutions in Albania. The National Assembly, as the highest legislative and representative institution in the Republic of Albania, plays an important role in the EU integration process. This EU funded Twinning Project is designed to strengthen the overall capacities of the Assembly in order to monitor the approximation of Albanian legislation with the EU acquis as well as the EU accession negotiations.

Purpose

The main objective of this Project is to improve legislative procedure and working methods of the Assembly for a more effective EU law approximation process, to strengthen parliamentary oversight capacities in relation to the activity of government and independent institutions and to strengthen financial and budgetary independence of the Assembly from the government, in line with the European best practices, while at the same time to strengthen transparency and administrative capacities of the Assembly.

Results

In order to achieve the project’s objectives 40 experts participated from Greece, Italy, Romania and Croatia. During the Projects implementation phase, 32 activities took place in 45 missions that were concluded from experts with broad experience, including 10 Capacity Building Activities, such as training seminars and workshops, attended by more than 160 members of the Albanian Assembly Staff, as well as 4 study visits in the Hellenic Parliament, the Croatian Parliament, the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the Italian Senate. Specifically:

Members of the Hellenic Parliament have worked on this project from the Scientific Council, the Scientific Service, the International Relations, the Legislature, the European Programs Implementation Service, the Parliamentary Channel, the Library, the Committees and the Human Resources. Greek MPs held meetings with the Albanian leadership and participated in high-profile and prominent actions. Reformation of the regulatory and control mechanisms of the Assembly of the Albania in order to enhance the effective fulfillment of the obligations arising from the EU - Albania Stabilization and Association Agreement and the Albania’s EU integration process. Improvement, democratization and strengthening of the individual processes of Parliament's legislative function, while drafting and adopting bills for the adaptation of Albanian law to the EU acquis. Strengthen parliamentary scrutiny over the Government and Independent Authorities in the Albanian Parliament and also strengthen the co-operation between them. Strengthen the Parliament's financial and budgetary independence by evaluating the current way of working and making concrete proposals based on European best practices. Promotion of the transparency and the administrative procedures of the Parliament aiming at the participation of the civil society in the legislative and decision-making process. Organization of training seminars for the Albanian Assembly Staff with transfer of know-how from the respective departments. Creation of a collaboration platform with access to all project participants for immediate information and cooperation.