Albania became part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE – at that time CSCE) during the proceedings of the Ministerial Council of Berlin (19-20 June 1991).
The Helsinki Final Act was signed on 16 September 1991, by the Albanian authorities, followed by the signature of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, on 17 September 1991. This moment marked a substantial change in the course of Albania’s foreign policy, which would free Albania from international self-isolation and bring it closer to the Euro-Atlantic community by sharing the principles and values of freedom, democracy and rule of law.
The accession of Albania to the OSCE was accompanied by deep legal reforms on the respect to Human Rights.
The circumstances that enabled Albania to access the OSCE comprised the democratic movement of December 1990, the first pluralistic elections and the adoption of the Provisional Constitutional Package, on 29 April 1991. This Package encompassed provisions that accepted political pluralism and respect for human rights.
In 1997, the Permanent Council decided, upon the request of the Albanian Government, to send an OSCE Presence in Albania, to help overcome the political crises and take the country to general elections, in line with the OSCE commitments.

The Danish Chairmanship, through its Special Envoy, the former Austrian Chancellor, Dr. Franz Vranitzky, brokered the resolution of the political crisis and enabled the opening of an OSCE Presence in Albania. In a second stage after that, this Presence was re-installed with an enhanced mandate, to include monitoring of the north-eastern borders of the country.
At a later stage, which is also the current one, a reinvigoration of the mandate was agreed in 2003 in order to better reflecting the developments and the progress of the country.

Albania has entered into a new phase of cooperation with the OSCE that is the partnership in achieving national priorities of the country, in line with the aspirations for the European Union integration of Albania.
Today, the OSCE Presence supports the legal, judicial, administrative and property reforms and helps the Albanian authorities in the parliamentary capacity building, the fight against corruption and promotion of good governance, empowerment of civil society, protecting and promoting e media freedom etc.
The increased role that Albania has continuously played in the region and beyond has had an impact on the substantial change of relations with the OSCE.
Albania is no longer a consumer of the OSCE expertise, but it contributes considerably in maintaining and boosting the role of the Organization in the European security architecture. Albania has increased its profile in the OSCE. It hosted the Autumn Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (October 2012), the High Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-discrimination (May 2013), the Third Southeast Europe Media Conference (September 2013), the media freedom conference in Tirana (June 2015), the second Media Development Forum (November 2016), the Conference of the Mediterranean and Asian Partnerships, the first in 2019 and the latest in 2021, as well as the 8th South-East Europe Media Conference (2021).

The highlight Albanian engagement vis-à-vis OSCE remains the Chairmanship of the Organization in 2020.
Furthermore, Albania brought to the attention of the Participating States the escalation of the security situation in Afghanistan, who made the OSCE the first organization to discuss this topic before any other organizations.