Europe strengthens local licensing administration capacities

TIRANA, July 5 – The European Union funded project on Technical Assistance and Training on Public Services Delivery to Local Government launched its preliminary results in a national conference of the Albanian Mayors Association.
Together with the Communes Association and the Regional Councils Association, they were the main beneficiaries of the 1 million euro project implemented through the EPTISA-FLGR& MottMcDonalds Consortium and financed under the 2004 CARDS1 programme.
Three pilot local government units, respectively Shkodra Municipality, Dajti Commune and Elbasani Regional Council, have benefited from the Project assistance and presented the best practices in the National Conference. In addition, the main findings of the Survey on Local Licensing in Albania were presented for further thought and discussions among the central and local government representatives and policy makers.
“Such a positive practice will be extended to 20 other local government units of Albania and will increase accessibility and transparency and the degree of standardization of licensing procedures at the local level” said Ms. L. Mu诬 the Project Manager from the EC Delegation in Albania.
The EU funded project is aimed primarily at institutional strengthening, and at increasing the transparency in public-private partnership towards better delivery of services to the local community.
“The medium term objective is to increase the collaboration between governmental levels with the aim to further rationalize the distribution of regulatory tasks between central, regional and local government and develop administrative capacities of the local level in licensing administration,” said Mr. H.Domi, Executive Director of Albanian Association of Regional Councils.
The conference brought together mayors of communes, municipalities and regional councils all over Albania, high level representatives from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of European Integration and the EC delegation to Albania, as well as local and foreign experts from EU countries, to talk about the development of administrative capacities of the local level in licensing administration. (Tirana Times Staff)