On 7 December 2021, the closing event for the successful end of the Twinning project in Albania entitled “Institution Building for alignment with the acquis communautaire on the protection of personal data” took place.

This Twinning project had a duration of 14.5 months and started on October 1, 2020. In fruitful cooperation, the Italian Data Protection Authority (Autorità Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali), the Consortium for Information Systems (CSI Piemonte) and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) were able to achieve the following project objectives:

– Alignment of national legislation with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Police Directive.

– Capacity building for the enforcement of the new legal framework for data protection

– Raise awareness of data reviewing and processing staff and other specific stakeholders to comply with the new data protection law.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19-pandemic, the closing event was held online and started with introductory remarks by Alexis HUPIN, representative of the EU Delegation in Albania, Fabrizio BUCCI from the Italian Embassy in Albania and Renate SEIB from the Austrian Embassy in Albania.

In the presence of the Albanian Minister of Justice, Ulsi MANJA, and the chief negotiator for the EU accession of Albania, Zef MAZI, the draft of the new Albanian law on personal data protection, which was submitted for review at the end of November 2021, was particularly highlighted by the Albanian project leader Besa TAUZI and the Data Protection Commissioner Besnik DERVISHI. The experts of the LBI-GMR contributed to this draft with their expertise to a large extent, as Prof Hannes TRETTER, junior project leader of this project, emphasized in his statement.

The final event highlighted the success of the Twinning project and the positive and appreciating cooperation between the project partners even despite the fact that the project was carried out entirely online.