TIRANA – Minister of European Integration, Ms. Klajda Gjosha, convened today the Interinstitutional Coordination Committee for European Integration (KKNIE). This committee consists of deputy ministers and directors of integration units in line ministries.
The focus of the meeting were some of the problems identified in the meetings of the Inter-institutional Working Groups held during January 2016, but also in the monitoring report of the National Plan for European Integration (2016-2020), which has been approved and already updated.
Minister Gjosha drew the attention of Deputy Ministers and Ministers, seeking maximum commitment of ministries regarding the respect of deadlines and quality of the information forwarded to the MEI.
“The Ministry of Integration as the coordinator of this process has a role that is closely related to the information forwarded by your ministries and institutions. Without them, reporting to Brussels cannot be realized, and therefore, the assessment would not be at the appropriate level. The quality of information and compliance with deadlines are an obligation that must be met by all, because this is the only way we can advance the country towards the European Union”, said Minister Gjosha.
Minister Gjosha said that despite major reforms, such as the judicial reform – the key to open negotiations – and the work being done to completing the 5 priorities, there are a number of obligations and parallel processes that Albania must meet arising from the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
Minister of European Integration, Ms. Klajda Gjosha, said that the National Plan for European Integration 2016-2020, already adopted, comes with a novelty.
“For the first time there is a costing of all measures provided for in this plan. A request actually made by the Ministry of Integration and realized also by this ministry in collaboration with the Technical Assistance Project, SMEI III. Your commitment is now required for preparation and adoption of planned acts, and accuracy in meeting all measures. Bringing to your attention that the previous National Plan had a realization under 50%, which is not the right one”, said Minister Gjosha.
The Minister underlined that reporting on the implementation of measures will be done every month and not once in 3 months. “Monitoring from the Ministry of Integration will be more rigorous, because the responsibility we have is even greater for the actual phase in which the country is, aiming to the opening of negotiations,” said Minister Gjosha.
Minister Gjosha reiterated that the Inter-institutional Working Groups are very important for the accession process, as coordinator for successfully completing this process.
“Furthermore, accession negotiations are structured according to negotiating chapters. For this reason, the Ministry of European Integration has insisted on organizing regular meetings of these working groups, as for fulfilling the tasks we have today in the design and monitoring of the National Plan for European Integration, as well as for reporting to the European Commission report”, said Minister Gjosha.
Minister Gjosha identified some problematic issues, underlining the importance of holding periodic meetings, and running these meetings with responsibility (by deputy ministers).
“Some ministries have not held the meeting of the Inter-institutional Working Group and meetings, generally, are not chaired by their chairperson, i.e. the respective deputy ministers. In most cases, they are run by directors of European integration or the heads of European integration units. Without questioning their skills, running meetings by the Deputy Minister shall give due importance to these meetings”, said Minister Gjosha.
Minister of Integration said that part of such level meetings should be representatives of ministries and institutions from technical directories, accompanied if necessary by employees of Integration directorates, and not the opposite. This is because the technical department representatives are those who possess the right knowledge and information.
“We need to identify the right employees to be members of the Working Group. For this we should ask for your help, as part of the meetings should be the right people who access the necessary information”, said Minister Gjosha.
Minister Gjosha stressed out that it is mandatory to increase and strengthen the working groups capacities in order to address the obligations related to the integration process. The Minister guaranteed that Ministry of European Integration will provide its support to all line ministries seeking assistance in this direction.
Problematic issues identified in the Monitoring Report
Based on the Monitoring Report on the National Plan for European Integration, although the realisation percentage from one quarter to another has posted growth, the number of adopted legal acts remains low compared to the planned number. During the second half of the year there has been an intensification of the work for the preparation and delivery of legal measures for approval.
According to the report, the main reasons for the delays are as follows:
- poor planning of the appropriate level of resources and time needed for preparation of draft acts by ministries;
- not at the right level inter-institutional coordination during the preparation of the draft act and lack of the observations by other ministries, leading to delays in approval of the draft act after its submission to the Council of Ministers.