EU official checks Albania’s reforms

TIRANA, Oct 4 – The Head of Unit responsible for Albania in the European Commission Directorate General for Enlargement, Dirk Lange, visited Albania last week to meet with top officials and also check the Civil Status Office in Vora to observe concrete results of the 2.5 million euro EU assistance project for the modernization of the civil registry and address system in Albania.
The project is being implemented by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Presence in Albania, in partnership with the Council of Europe. The project is supported with additional funding from Statistics Norway and the United States Government.
Lange emphasized the importance of having the electoral infrastructure completed well in advance of the 2009 general elections and stressed the importance of achieving timely progress regarding the completion of the civil registry, the Electoral Code and the election administration.
Lange declared that “Albania should ensure that a reliable civil registry is in place and that identity documents in line with international standards are issued to all voters sufficiently in advance of the next parliamentary elections”.
Lange was accompanied by the OSCE ambassador in Tirana Robert Bosch who considered “the modernization of Albania’s civil registration system as an important and necessary instrument to support the electoral reform process. Clearly the voter lists will be a key outcome of the civil registration system. So data quality is a crucial element for the future modernization and improvement of public service provision.”
They both urged Albanian authorities that “further efforts needs to be done. The Data Protection Authority needs to be established and the work on the address system should continue. But important steps are being made.”