At the conference “Integrity: A Compass to Democracy and Competitiveness”, held in Tirana in view of the Albanian Integrity Week (02-15 December), Council of Europe expert Dr. Nieves Zúñiga contributed to the panel Integrity in Governance: The Role of Accountability in Democracy, alongside representatives of Albanian institutions, regional organisations and the private sector.

In her intervention, Ms. Zúñiga underlined how imperative it is to combine robust compliance frameworks with the promotion of ethical values to accomplish long-term integrity in public governance. Focusing on lobbying, a novelty for Albania, she highlighted that lobbying is a legitimate component of democratic and inclusive policy-making and is increasingly necessary in policy areas requiring specialised expertise. During the discussion, she cautioned, however, that both the lack of lobbying regulation and weak or insufficient regulatory frameworks pose serious risks to public accountability, mentioning undue influence over public decision-making and unequal access to policy- and decision-makers. She echoed several recommendations stemming from the Council of Europe’s two previous reviews of the draft law on lobbying in Albania, underlining that effective lobbying regulation should have a broad scope and clear definitions, cover all relevant lobbying activities, ensure transparency through disclosure and publication of information, and be supported by oversight mechanisms and sanctions. She further stressed the importance of legal coherence between lobbying rules, conflict of interest provisions and revolving doors in order to safeguard the public interest and ensure citizens’ trust
in public institutions.

This contribution builds on the Council of Europe’s continued support to Albania in strengthening its anti-corruption legal framework, including support for two reviews of the draft lobbying legislation to align it with European standards and best practices, support for a roundtable of consultations on the lobbying draft law, as well as assistance related to conflict of
interest legislation and the regulation of political party financing.

This initiative is part of the "Enhancing Public Sector Resilience Against Corruption"; project, cofunded by the Council of Europe and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by the Council of Europe.