National Convention on European Integration
National Convention for European Integration of Albania is contributing to increase the participation of all segments of Albanian society (including the regions) in formulating and making of national policies. Special emphasis is put on EU integration effort of Albania as well as on promotion of cooperation of governmental and NGO sectors with the aim to strengthen capacities and capabilities in order to be able to meet all the criteria of the EU integration.
Perceiving EU integration not as a mere institutional agenda, but as an ambitious development project being continuously determined from the whole society, the role of civil society and citizens actively committed is crucial to promote European values and raise awareness in the public opinion on the impact and benefits of EU Membership for Albania.
Establishing the bridge between state institutions and civil society and at the same time helping to increase capacities in both sectors special mechanisms are needed.
Goals
- Institutionalisation of the public debate on EU related issues based on the partnership of the government, civil society and business organisations;
- Strengthening the CSOs and experts’ skills and capacities regarding the EU integration negotiations;
- Engagement of non-state actors and interest groups in national policy-making on EU related issues;
- Create the interactive and permanent information channel for all segments of the society;
- Transfer of European and regional experience in the field of building democratic institutions and permanent expert dialogue;
- Structured information on the EU based on the sectoral interests of the crucial segments of the society (expert and general knowledge improvement);
Impacts
- establishment of the permanent, coherent and continual thematically structured debate forum focused on the relations between the EU and the State;
- support an elaboration of „national“ positions and creation of the national consensus in particular issues asserted by the state’s representatives towards the EU institutions;
- strengthen the governmental and NGO capacities for EU integration processes;
- improve readiness of the state for integration into the international structures.
Outputs
- policy recommendations from Plenary Sessions;
- policy recommendations from Working Groups Sessions;
- research outputs for the WGs’ (internal experts of the WGs) ;
- printed publications (policy recommendations: Plenary Sessions plus WGs, research outputs of internal experts);
- establishment of the think-tank network cooperating on the EU integration agenda issues with other segments of society (government, entrepreneurs, local governments, etc…)
- promotion of results and outputs of the action through various channels of communication and media
For the 2023-2026 period, National Convention is being financially supported by the European Union (IPA CSF 2021) in the framework of the action Building Partnership on Fundamental Issues: Empowerment of CSOs for the EU membership process that is being implemented by EMA in cooperation with the Academy of European Integration and Negotiations (AIEN), Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA) and the Center for Transparency and Freedom of Information (CTFI).
Working Groups (WG):There are formed several Working Groups whose topics are directly related to EU Acquis Chapters highlighting the political, technical and legal dimension of such process. The active groups for the period 2023-2026 are the groups that cover the five chapters of Cluster 1 – Fundamentals. 45 sessions of WGs are being organised for the period 2023-2026, aiming the inclusion in a comprehensive manner all relevant stakeholders and targeting also those actors of interest that have not been/or have been partially involved in EU integration process, with peculiar focus the local dimension.:
WG – Judiciary and Human Rights (Chapter 23)
WG – Justice, Freedom, Security (Chapter 24)
WG – Public Procurement (Chapter 5)
WG – Statistics (Chapter 18)
WG – Financial Control (Chapter 32)
Other established Working Groups are:
WG – Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Chapter 11,12 and 27)
WG – Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments (Chapter 22)
WG – Trade and Economy Issues (Chapter 1,2,3,4 and 20)
WG 6 – Environment (Chapter 27)
NCEI in Albania 2014-2016 and 2019-2023: NCEI in Albania started in an important momentum -when Albania received ‘candidate country’ status (2014). NCEI put special emphasis on EU integration effort of Albania while promoted cooperation. During these two editions were organized 60 sessions of the working groups and 5 Plenary sessions during whose recommendations and conclusions have been disseminated to the state institutions, NGO-s and INGO-s, diplomatic missions in Albania and European Commission.
About NCEI
Being a unique model developed by the Slovak Foreign Policy Association between 2003 –2007 it was extended through the support of Slovakia´s bilateral development assistance (Slovak Aid) in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. For the period 2014-2023, the National Convention for European Integration in Albania has been financially supported by SlovakAid and implemented in cooperation with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.
Montenegro – http://eukonvencija.me/en/o-nacionalnoj-konvenciji/
Serbia – http://eukonvent.org/
North Macedonia – http://europeanmovement.org.mk/nkeu-mk/