Technical Assistance

Foreign assistance for EU integration- SMEI II, SMEI III, SMEI IV, PPF, GIZ and others

Previous and current programmes and donor activities
Albania’s development and EU integration efforts were supported by the EU and other bilateral and multilateral donors.

Support to the Ministry of European Integration I (SMEI I), CARDS 2005 – “SMEI I” under CARDS 2005 was a 2 million euro project, providing technical assistance for a period over 28 months. The project aimed to strengthen the capacities for the implementation of the SAA and especially the improvement of coordination mechanisms between the line ministries and former Ministry of European Integration. Furthermore, it aimed to reorganise and strengthen the administration system, planning, coordination, and implementation and monitoring of Community assistance. Additional support to former Ministry of European Integration under the same CARDS 2005 programme included the supply of IT hardware and software, office equipment, as well as two four-wheel-drive-vehicles for monitoring of EU funded cross-border programmes. The project ended in July 2009.

Support to the Ministry of European Integration II (SMEI II), IPA 2008 – Building on the results of “SMEI I”, the objective of the project was to support and strengthen Albania’s administrative capacity to implement the SAA and prepare for the country’s further EU integration. SMEI II was implemented under a Delegation Agreement by the GIZ. SMEI II supported the former Ministry of European Integration as the ministry with the lead responsibility for the integration process, and the coordinator of EU financial assistance. Valuable assistance was provided related to preparation of the Albanian answers to the EC Questionnaire on granting the country the candidate status. It also contributed to the process of planning and monitoring of the legal harmonisation, and aimed to ensure sustainability of EU-related reforms. SMEI II was implemented during the period August 2009 and September 2011.

Support to the European Union Integration Process-Phase III (SMEI III), IPA 2010 – SMEI III was a technical assistance project dealing with the horizontal issues of management of European integration in Albania. The overall objective of the project was to achieve adequate progress in the EU Integration process of the Albanian government based on a long term strategy before accession. SMEI III especially supported strengthening legal approximation, capacity building via training and improvement of institutional and inter-institutional management of European integration demands and last but not least public information about European integration. SMEI III started in January 2012 and was finalised in February 2016. The budget of the project was approximately 1.5 million euro.

Support to the European Union Integration Process-Phase IV (SMEI IV), IPA 2014 – SMEI IV was a technical assistance project focusing on: support to the implementation of the obligations deriving from the SAA; support to the alignment and  implementation of the acquis into the Albanian legislation; strengthen the capacity building of the responsible civil servants to enhance their role in the EU legal harmonisation, screening and accession negotiation processes; and support to the implementation of the Albanian government’s Communication Strategy. The budget of the project was approximately 2 million euro. The project was started in February 2017 and was suspended in June 2018 and finally terminated in September 2018 due to issues related to tendering process of the project back in 2016. First the merge of the Ministry of European Integration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later the suspension of the project prevented the project to achieve its goals. In particular, the suspension of the project interrupted the training programme that was to be initiated for the staff of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on accession negotiations.

Support to Accession Negotiations in Economic Chapters of acquis on Albania (SANECA) – The general objective of the project is to improve the framework conditions for the conduct of EU accession negotiations for selected acquis chapters in the economic sector are improved focusing on following chapter: Free movement of goods (Chapter 1), Right of establishment freedom to provide services (Chapter 3), Enterprise and industrial policy (Chapter 20) and Consumer and health protection (Chapter 28). The project is funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The Project will support the screening process, assist in fulfilling potential benchmarks and seek for the inclusion of the civil society in to the process of accession negotiations. Total value of the project is 2 million euro and implementation period is June 2019 to May 2022.

EURALIUS V – Euralius is an EU technical assistance project which supports and assists key Albanian justice institutions to bring their performance closer to EU standards. The overall objective of the EURALIUS V is to strengthen the independence, transparency, efficiency, accountability and public trust in the Albanian justice system in line with the EU acquis and best practices. More specifically, project aims to improve the independence, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the Albanian justice system pursuant to a comprehensive reform strategy developed by the Albanian Ministry of Justice and other actors in the justice system; to improve the organizational, administrative, technical and resource management capacities, as well as the case management capabilities of the judiciary in order to improve efficiency and transparency of courts and to align the Albanian criminal, civil and administrative justice system with EU standards. EURALIUS V started in April 2018 and is envisaged to last 3 years.

Support to explanatory and bilateral meeting process for EU accession negotiations of Albania is a project funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in the period January – September 2019 with the main objective to strengthen the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to perform its coordinating role in the explanatory and bilateral meeting process. The project drafted standards and guidelines for the establishment and operation of the working groups for the negotiation process; conducted and follow-up the explanatory and bilateral meetings for up to five selected chapters and contributed to the visibility of the bilateral meeting process. The value of the project was 250,000 euro.

Support to IPA management – is framework contract started in February 2019 with a foreseen duration of 18 months. The overall objective of the project is to support the efficient use of EU assistance, in order to better prepare for EU membership. The project will be implemented with specific objective to strengthen the capacities of the NIPAC, NIPAC Support Office and other stakeholders and institutions in planning, programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EU assistance.

Support to food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary standards is an IPA 2016 project implemented with the main objective to establish the institutional and administrative capacities in line with the overall public administration reform agenda to ensure an increased protection of human, animal and plant health at every stage of the food production process (Chapter 12). One of the specific objectives is to assist the restructuring of the administrative structures, ensure the building of capacities to implement policy measures and achieve strategic objectives in line with general public administration reform and the EU membership requirements. The Project started in January 2019 and is envisaged to last four years.

Supporting Albanian Negotiations in Environment, Chapter 27, SANE 27 is project funded by the Swedish Government with main goal of providing assistance in negotiations in Chapter 27. The project envisages legal and administrative assessment in the chapter 27 and overall capacity building for the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and its subordinated institutions. The project started in May 2018 is scheduled to last until May 2021.

Through bilateral assistance Montenegro is planning to provide assistance of 30,000 euro. The assistance will support exchange of experiences from the process of EU accession negotiations and possibly development aid under Chapter 30. It is planned be implemented until the end of 2019.

EU project “High Level Advisory” – is a short-term pilot project in the amount of 370,000 euro. The project is implemented in the period January – September 2019. The objective of the project was ad-hoc support in chapters 15, 23 and 24 and a pilot project responsible for the preparation of Terms of Reference for a larger comprehensive follow-up project (SMEI V) in IPA 2016. This project cooperated with the GIZ project (explained below) on assisting the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior to prepare the screening analysis for negotiating chapters 23 and 24. In October 2019The EUD in Albania approved the extension of the project till 28 February 2020. The project will continue to provide assistance to MEFA in strengthening its internal capacities to coordinate and plan the process of European integration, support and advice the negotiating structures on the process of bilateral screening.

GIZ project “Study and Expert Fund” – was a short-term project with a value of 250,000 euro. The project was implemented in the period January – September 2019. The overall objective was to provide pre-screening horizontal support to MEFA. The GIZ project has prepared several templates for the accession process and a guideline on negotiations. GIZ assisted on designing a document management system for the accession negotiations.