EC funds free movement of goods between Albania and the EU with 1.7 million Euros

TIRANA, Sep 23 – The European Commission funded the Albanian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy with 1.7 million Euros to develop institutional and legal reforms supporting the free movement of goods between Albania and the EU.
The two-year projects will help Albania take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Stabilization and Association Agreement it signed two years ago.
Some 800,000 Euros were allocated to support Accreditation, Standards and Certification activities in the form of assistance to the Albanian National Accreditation Body and the Albanian National Standards body.
A further 900,000 Euros addresses Technical Regulations, Market Surveillance and Consumer Protection issues in the form of assistance to the Market Surveillance Directorate of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy, the Albanian Consumers Associations and the General Technical Inspectorate.
Albanian authorities will benefit from capacity building and training and they will receive assistance in order to align Albanian legislation with the EU acquis in the quality infrastructure field.
It is expected that 80 percent of European standards will be adopted as Albanian ones. Moreover, the projects will further the development of consumer protection and market surveillance strategies, so that the Albanian public can find higher quality products in the market place (e.g. authentic brand-name clothing, toiletries, CDs and DVDs rather than counterfeit goods).
“The free movement of goods is a fundamental building block of the internal market in the European Union. The projects that were launched today help Albania prepare for participation in the internal market, and they give a boost to all economic operators wishing to exploit the opportunities offered by the trade provisions of the Stabilization and Association Agreement” said Ambassador Helmuth Lohan of the European Commission Delegation in Tirana.