IDM Blog

Albania’s progress on EU conditions is telling of the government’s European ambitions   By Fiona Papajani, IDM Autumn Intern 2020   The European Commission’s 2020 Report on Albania continues to echo concerns on the overall scope of democratic deficit and polarized political environment; those same concerns shared by the European …

The Integrity Plan: A new perspective in the fight against corruption In December 2019, the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) developed the Integrity Risk Assessment Methodology for the Central Government[1]. This is a mandatory anti-corruption instrument which is implemented by central institutions aiming to draft an integrity plan. A …

Does the Albanian political leadership value a professional and competent military?   By Alban Dafa, researcher on governance and security   There is a worrying trend in the Albanian defence establishment whereby professional competency is becoming increasingly irrelevant for top leadership positions in the Albanian military. On 29 July 2020, …

The Albanian military should focus on building its combat readiness   By Alban Dafa, researcher on governance and security   The engagement of Albanian Armed Forces in response to domestic security crises are fostering a distorted view of the military’s core tasks. The impression one gets from such deployments is …

The role of civil society in tackling corruption   Speech by IDM’s Executive Director Sotiraq Hroni at the 2020 Albanian OSCE Chairmanship Conference “Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption in the Digital Era: Strengthening the Principles of Transparency, Integrity and Accountability”. This speech was delivered as a part of …

COVID-19 in Albania: democratic governance put to the test   *This blog is published as part of the regional blogging initiative “Tales from the Region” on the experience of western Balkan countries with the COVID-19 Pandemic, published between 24 June 2020 and 6 July 2020. The initiative is coordinated by …

IDM and Res Publica announce “Tales from the region”   A regional blogging initiative on the experience with the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Western Balkans.   For several months now, the region functions in emergency circumstances caused by COVID-19. To prevent the virus from spreading, governments in the region are …

How prepared is Albania to cope with massive migratory flows? *This is a translated version of the Op-Ed that was originally published in Albanian in Gazeta Shiptare on 18 June 2020. Author: Armela Xhaho Over the past two years, Albania has faced an increased influx of asylum seekers and irregular immigrants …

May 17, the day on which the city of Tirana was to be filled with the rainbow colours of the International LGBTQA Day, was filled with the ashes and the smoke as democratic governance was destroyed through the demolition of the National Theatre.

Western Balkans’ Euro-Atlantic perspective revived *This blog was originally published on ResPublica on 3 April 2020. Authors: Alfonc Rakaj & Leonie Vrugtman Western Balkan’s European integration perspective was severely challenged at the end of last year, when the European Council was unable to open negotiation talks with Albania and North …