Survey on public administration knowledge of SAA and European integration related issues, presented in Tirana by the Ministry of Integration.

Survey on public administration knowledge of SAA and European integration related issues, presented in Tirana by the Ministry of Integration.

The Minister of Integration, Ms. Majlinda Bregu and the British Ambassador in Tirana, Mr. Fraser Wilson participated in the conference “Albania and the European Union: Stabilisation and Association Agreement and Beyond” held in “Tirana International Hotel”. This survey supported by the British Embassy and GTZ targeted the public administration and aimed at identifying their general knowledge, motivation and expectations from the European integration process.

According to this survey, the category better informed on this process is the central administration, with the local administration lagging behind.

The category less familiar with the Stabilisation and Association Agreement is the independent institutions. Only 72% of the central administration has read the SAA or parts of it, as is the case with 53% of the judiciary, 40% of the local administration and 39% of independent institutions. These results are unsatisfactory considering that state administration is responsible for SAA implementation.

Concerning knowledge on approximation of legislation, people were asked whether they had heard about acquis communautaire (European Law). The central administration again marked the highest percentage. A disturbing fact was that over 50% of the judiciary had not heard about acquis communautaire.

Minister of Integration, Ms.Majlinda Bregu, prior to the presentation of this survey, said that “the conclusions of this survey will serve to clearly and timely identify the problems during the SAA implementation and encourage us to act to enhance information and administrative capacities for the integration process – in central and local administration, independent institutions and the judicial system”.

Mr.Fraser Wilson, British Ambassador in Tirana, said that such surveys are important to the integration process in that they transmit proper information to the ministry, different levels of state administration and independent institutions, as well as identify where more efforts are needed.

The survey “Albania and the European Union: Stabilisation and Association Agreement and Beyond” covered the period November 2006-March 2007 and was managed and coordinated by the staff of the Ministry of Integration.