In a meeting with Mr Klement Zguri, Chair of the Central Election Commission of Albania, Mr Claus Neukirch Head of the Council of Europe Office (CoE) in Tirana and Ms Liljana Kaci, Senior Project Officer in the Action against Economic Crime (AEC-AL) discussed the results of the cooperation and the support that the Council of Europe is providing to the CEC in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Following the adoption of the Law no. 90/2017 “On some additions and amendments to law no. 8580, dated 17.2.2000, “On Political parties”, the Council of Europe through the AEC-AL supported the CEC in developing the following bylaws:

CEC Instruction No.1, dated 31.05.2017 "On the use of propaganda materials and places for displaying them during the election campaign";

Instruction No. 2 dated 01.06.2017 "On the approval of procedures and criteria for selecting the preliminary list and the appointment of financial experts for monitoring the election campaign"; and

Instruction No. 3, dated 02.06.2017 "On the method of calculating financial costs of activities, services or materials to be used for political purposes by political parties during election campaign”.

The assistance in the development of the bylaws was followed by two trainings of Party compliance officers and financial experts on reporting and monitoring election campaign finances.

In the meeting, Mr Zguri thanked the CoE for the promptness and the high quality of support provided to the CEC. The assistance played a key role in enabling the CEC to comply with the legal obligations conferred by the recent amendments to legislation which set tight deadlines for the CEC to prepare all the necessary bylaws and organise necessary trainings.

Mr Zguri expressed strong commitment and readiness to continue the cooperation with the Council of Europe towards achieving the Action’s goals.

The support of the AEC-AL to the CEC continues through assistance in setting up the relevant structure for the control and verification of audit reports, through the design of a regulatory and methodological framework, and through a cascade of trainings on audit and verification of financial reports of political parties which will be delivered to the CEC staff, as well as the High State Audit, Authorised Chartered Accountants and NGOs.