National Resource Centre Workshop – The negotiation process for Chapter 24 – Justice, Freedom, Security – opportunities for the involvement of civil society in the negotiation process, January 26, 2024

On Friday, January 26 2024, EMA in collaboration with Melius Organisation, held a training session, bringing together representatives from civil society organisations, state institutions, academic staff, activists, and students to strengthen their capacities in the negotiation process between Albania and the European Union. The training consisted of four sessions addressing the topics included in Chapter 24 of the EU acquis.

Gentiana Bektashi and Ingrid Dano, representatives from the Ministry of Interior, presented the legal framework and key state institutions involved in the negotiation process for Chapter 24 in Albania during the first session. They highlighted the structure of this chapter into relevant themes such as the fight against organised crime, terrorism, migration, asylum, visa policies, etc. They additionally addressed the scope of the Inter-Institutional Working Group’s (IIWG) action for Chapter 24, highlighting the fact that this chapter consists of 18 participating institutions, ministries, directories, and dependent institutions. Moreover, the lecturers delineated conclusions, recommendations, and the structure of presentations in bilateral meetings held during the screening process. In the second training session, the lecturers specifically addressed the drafting and approval of the Rule of Law Roadmap as one of the most crucial strategic documents in the country, which has taken into consideration the assessments and findings of the European Commission forwarded to the Albanian party, presentations during the bilateral meetings between the EU and Albania in November 2022, and the conclusions from the “Justice, Freedom, Security” Sub-Committee meeting held on June 14-15, 2023. The lecturers focused on the priority measures for Chapter 24 areas that will be implemented in the upcoming years, including the approval of a Strategy on Asset Recovery and its action plan, the establishment of the Asset Recovery Office for the first time, the creation of a mechanism for identifying new drugs, and the establishment of a national system for drug information exchange, adoption of relevant legal amendments to criminalize all forms of online child sexual abuse; the adoption of the new Action Plan for the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings (2024), as well as the establishment of the National Central Office for the coordination and exchange of information in the field of currency protection against counterfeiting. At the end of this session, they stressed the three key negotiating points that the Albanian government should present before the start of the negotiations. In the final session, the lecturers explained the role of the Roundtable for Chapter 24 within the Partnership Platform, where the Ministry of Interior, as the leading institution for this chapter, has institutionalised PPEI with around 30 representatives from universities, media, civil society, international organisations, etc. Throughout various meetings with roundtable members on issues related to the fight against organised crime, money laundering, cybercrime, and control of cannabis cultivation and processing for medical and industrial purposes, or ensuring the Rule of Law, the continuous and significant involvement of civil society has been recommended. This involvement contributes to monitoring strategic and planning documents by preparing reports and monitoring and evaluation documents.

Nirvana Deliu, Policy Researcher at the European Movement in Albania, commented on the Copenhagen criteria, the additional Madrid criterion, and the new enlargement methodology, as well as the grouping of chapters into six clusters. She also explained the importance of the European Commission’s annual (progress) reports for candidate countries, as they determine achievements of the past year and priorities for the upcoming year. In this context, Deliu presented the scorecard for Chapter 24 for the year 2023 compared to 2022, prepared by EMA, analysing progress and preparedness levels and providing a rating (where 10 is the highest and 4 is the lowest) for relevant subfields of this chapter, such as the fight against organised crime and money laundering, drug control, migration and asylum, visa and Schengen policy, cybercrime and counter-terrorism, and judicial cooperation. Deliu emphasized a positive change in progress and preparation level for migration and asylum, visa policies, and judicial cooperation. In conclusion, she highlighted that reforms should mainly focus on other areas, such as cybercrime and counter-terrorism, which maintain the same level of progress and preparedness as the previous year.

Participants in this workshop expressed particular interest in their personal and the civil society representative’s further involvement in the negotiation process through consultation or the preparation of assessment documents after monitoring the work of responsible public institutions. They raised discussions about the Rule of Law as one of the European Union’s key conditions and the improvement of measures outlined in the Roadmap.

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This workshop takes place within the framework of the National Resource Centre for Civil Society in Albania, supported by the European Union and implemented by Partners Albania for Change and Development in cooperation with the European Movement in Albania and the Albanian Centre for Population and Development.