Working Group for Chapter 5 – Public Procurement: Meeting the provisional closing benchmarks within the accession negotiations framework, 10 June 2025

On June 10, 2025, in Tirana, a roundtable for Chapter 5 – Public Procurement was held with focus on provisional closing benchmarks of this chapter and recommendations of a monitoring report on the implementation of principles of Public Administration Reform (PAR) on public procurement practices in the field of tourism. This roundtable was organised by the European Movement in Albania ( EMA) in cooperation with the Public Procurement Agency, in the framework of Partnership Platform for European Integration (PPIE)  and National Convention on European Integration (NCEI). 

In his opening remarks, Gledis Gjipali, Executive Director of EMA, underlined that deeper cooperation at different levels regarding particular issues according to EU acquis chapters, to accelerate EU accession talks is necessary, since the process is intensive and the drafting of a clear law framework is not enough. The distribution of appropriate information to interest groups and public administration is also of the same significance. Furthermore, he claimed that the legislative process in Albania is among the fastest in the region, providing only three weeks for  public consultation prior to a law adoption. In this regard, he underlined the importance of the consultation process with relevant actors to move forward towards the closure of benchmarks set by the EU.

Geri Pilaca, Head of the Integration and Foreign Relations Sector at the Public Procurement Agency, claimed that the work for the closure of benchmarks is ongoing  according to a clear work plan coordinated with other institutions. One of the current priorities is the reassessment of the Law on Concessions and PPPs, with the aim of achieving a high degree of EU compatibility. For this reason, the Working Group has prepared a draft in accordance with Directive 2014/23/EU and reflection of SIGMA comments, and it has been published for public consultation.

Xhoana Ristani,  Director  of the Directorate of Strategic Policy Implementation and Integration at the Public Procurement Agency, presented  the measures taken and their status with the aim of successfully closing  provisional benchmarks. She also emphasised that Chapter 5 will be the first to be closed during the negotiations process, as a consequence also of  Albania’s advantage in this field in comparison  with other countries in the region. In the annual report of the  European Commission for Albania 2024, our country is assessed as moderately prepared in the field of Public Procurement. Therefore, more focus is needed on transparency, integrity and competition in public procurement procedures in compliance with its principles.

Related to the first benchmark on alignment of national law framework in compliance to EU acquis in all areas of public procurement, Ristani commented that it is currently being reviewed by the EC whether Law no. 161/2020 “On Public Procurement”  needs additional amendments at this stage. Also for this benchmark, the first draft for adoption of the new Law on Concessions and PPPs has been finished, after consultations with line ministries, and an Inter-institutional Working Group has been established to draft amendments to the law on procurement in the field of defense/security, in accordance with Directive 2009/81/EU, to carry out the preparation for the first draft in the next phase. 

With  regard to the second benchmark concerning the establishment of administrative and institutional capacities for effective implementation of legislation, Ristani explained that it is planned to certify 500 people in this field, where so far, 144 have successfully passed  two tests, which were attended by the staff of the Centralised Purchasing Operator, experts on the public procurement field and contracting authorities. Among other measures foreseen for this benchmark, include  the drafting of an analytical  document  on cancelled procedures and those with only a bidder; providing recommendations related to the preparation of tender documents and contract implementation, which are in line with the ongoing work of the Public Procurement Agency. Furthermore, the latter has collaborated with the World Bank to publish LCC tools, which in this stage are being translated into Albanian language. Another measure foreseen for the second benchmark is the drafting of a strategy for further developing the Centralised Purchasing Operator, subject to approval in June.

Lastly, Ristani explained that for the third benchmark on demonstrating a fair and transparent public procurement system, a statistical report on the performance of the procurement system is being finalised for the period 2022-2025 based on the data of the annual reports published by APP; approval of a methodology for evaluating the risk corruption in PP in cooperation with Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-corruption (MAPA), ANAC, and OSCE, which it is expected to be published by the end on June, and drafting an integrity model plan for AK/EK with special focus on integrity in procurement processes in collaboration with MAPA.

Elda Zotaj, Lecturer and Expert for European Affairs, focused on the importance of civil society’s role in negotiations through monitoring. She presented the findings of the EMA report, in the framework of the WeBER 3.0 project, which considers  the implementation of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in public procurement and public finance management.  The report had as its focus the activity of  the Ministry of  the Tourism and the Environment for the period January 2023-July 2024,  analysing 7 criteria  on transparency, competition, bylaws on public procurement and concessions/PPPs, interviews with institutions and documentation. In this regard, four criteria are implemented, two partially and one not implemented at all, with recommendation for further improvement. Moreover, Zotaj highlighted that in the New Strategy for  Public Procurement 2024-2030 and its Action Plan (2024-2027), the civil society is  mentioned only once in page 38,  when in the meantime the civil society has played an important role during the last years in this field. In conclusion, Zotaj emphasized that active inclusion of the civil society is essential to ensure that this process will be transparent, to help in strengthening democracy, increasing citizens’ trust in state institutions and improving the quality of public services.

Closing discussion focused on the application of social criteria in public procurement, especially in relation to employment of persons registered with the National Employment and Skills Agency. Questions were raised as to whether this criterion should be extended to other representations, and if the system is prepared for integrity in the common European market, considering  continuous limited participation of foreign companies/bidders in procurement. Also the usage of the artificial intelligence in the public procurement system in Albania and a balanced combination with human capacity was deliberated.

**This roundtable takes place within the framework of the project “Building Partnership on Fundamentals: Empowered CSOs in the EU accession process”, with the financial support of the European Union – IPA Civil Society Facility 2021, which is implemented by the European Movement in Albania and in cooperation with the Academy of European Integration and Negotiations (AIEN), Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA) and the Center for Transparency and Free Information (CTFI).