16 Feb 2021 by Ludwig Boltzmann

Kick-off event of the Twinning project “Institution-building for alignment with the Union acquis on the protection of personal data” in Albania

The high-level event on the occasion of the official start of the project took place on 16 February 2021 and was held as an online video conference due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants were welcomed by Besnik Dervishi (Albanian Commissioner for Information and Data Protection), Ambassador Luigi Soreca (Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Albania), Alberto Petrangeli (Deputy Ambassador of Italy) and Renate Seib (Deputy Ambassador of Austria). Thereafter, high-level representatives from the Council of Europe, the Albanian Prime Minister’s Office and the Albanian Ministry of Justice gave short presentations and emphasized their support for the thematic areas and activities of the project.

Subsequently, the project content was presented in more detail. Representatives of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner of Albania as beneficiary institution of the project held short presentations, followed by representatives of the Italian Data Protection Authority as Lead Organization. Hannes Tretter, Austrian Junior Project Leader and Co-founder of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, presented the content of project component 1, which aims at the alignment of national legislation with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Police Directive. He emphasized the topicality and relevance of data protection and the need to carefully weigh up individual and public interests. His input was followed by further presentations by representatives of the Italian project partner “Consortium for Information Systems” (CSI Piemonte).

The project is carried out by the Italian Data Protection Authority, the Italian Consortium for Information Systems and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights. During the implementation of the project, experts from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights as well as Austrian partner institutions will support the staff of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner of Albania with their expertise. The project has a duration of 12 months in the period from 2020 to 2021, further information can be found here. The agenda of the kick-off event and the full speech by Junior Project Leader Hannes Tretter can be found in the download section of this article.