National Resource Center for Civil Society in Albania: Albania’s European Integration Process: Opportunities for Civil Society involvement in the negotiation process regarding education, science, and youth- July 3, 2023

On July 3, a workshop was held with regards to the National Resource Center for Civil Society in Albania implemented by Partners Albania for Change and Development, in collaboration with the European Movement in Albania and the Albanian Center for Population and Development.

Gledis Gjipali, Executive Executive Director of EMA in his opening speech made a brief presentation of the project and spoke about the contribution and role of EMA in capacity-building and promoting new ideas to improve the position of NGOs in the country.

During the second session, Geron Kamberi, Expert on European Integration, analyzed the field of education, science and youth within the process of integration, with a particular focus on the Chapter 10, 25 and 26. He clarified that Chapter 10 has some specific rules for electronic communications, information society services, in particular electronic commerce, conditional access services and audiovisual services. He added that the EU legislation for Chapter 25 requires from Member States to ensure the necessary implementation capacities to follow the objectives and activities of the EU in the field of scientific research and technological development. Moreover, this chapter like chapter 10 does not require the transposition of EU rules in the national legislation because of the capacities that each candidate country has. Also, another topic on the EU agenda in research and innovation is artificial intelligence for the future.

During the third session, which coincides with the negotiation process for Albania in the fields of education, youth and science, Kamberi showed the steps forward that Albania has made during the transition. In order to realize and accelerate its integration process, the EU has offered grants for various fields covering youth, environment, media and culture to scientific research. Finally, Kamberi stopped at Civil Society, which has an important role in the negotiation process of a candidate country to join the European Union as one of the main actors in terms of awareness, information, technical expertise and monitoring. He reflected a picture of the legal and institutional framework for the engagement of civil society in the process of European integration.