December 14th 2011, Hotel Tirana International

Embassy of the Republic of Poland and Delegation of the European Union in cooperation with Institute for Democracy and Mediation organized the seminar: “Fight against corruption in public administration – Poland’s lessons learnt, challenges for Albania”. The seminar was attended H.E. Mrs. Ambassador Irena Tatarzyńska, H.E. Ambassador Mr. Ettore Sequi, Vice Minister of Integration Mrs. Grida Duma, Vice Minister of Justice Mr. Ermal Dobi as well as Head of Transparency International Albania Mr. Lutfi Dervishi.

The meeting was attended also by independent experts from civil society in Albania, representatives from international institututions etc. The round-table was designed as a pool of discussions and open debates from various actors.

Anti – corruption is one of the 12th key EU priorities for Albania. Fighting corruption remains also a key priority for Government of Albania. Despite efforts in this direction, there is no convincing evidence on real progress on this issue. Reports show that public perceptions still considers public administration as highly corrupted. This year Albania’s position on corruption index has dropped from 87 in 2010 to 95 (previous years: 2009 – 84, 2008 – 85). Poland as a Presidency considers this key priority as one of the most important conditions on the way to the EU membership. The fight against corruption requires strong and effective tools, and Albania is already having them, but going backwards on the index list proves that there are not adequate measures undertaken to their implementation. To help sensitivity and improve this situation, organisers hope that this seminar and Poland’s experience with building the anti – corruption machinery would provide Albanian government, Albanian think tanks, as well representatives of civil society with ideas how to further proceed with this serious problems that is costing too much to the Albanian citizens and hindering the whole process of the accession to the UE.