The Joint European Union and Council of Europe Action against Economic Crime in Albania and the Council of Europe HELP Programme in the Western Balkans, in co-operation with the Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption and the Albanian School of Public Administration, launched the Albanian language version of the Council of Europe course on “Introduction to corruption prevention” at a high-level event in Tirana.

This interactive online course builds awareness on the forms of corruption and prevention tools, focusing on ethics, conflicts of interest, post-employment restrictions, protection of whistleblowers, etc., and through practical examples and scenarios, it puts on the spotlight ethical dilemmas and challenges in implementing anti-corruption measures. The course will be implemented for the political advisors of Albanian ministries, as the primary target group.

In her opening remarks, the Minister of State for Public Administration and Anti-Corruption, Adea Pirdeni highlighted the importance of the course’s implementation in contributing to the fulfilment of one of GRECO’s recommendation and aligning it with the Albanian Government’s priority for a professional public administration with high integrity. “Let us see this course as one element of the greater picture, being our joint initiative to ameliorate the standards and culture of work in the public administration,” said Minister Pirdeni. 

Giulia Re, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tirana underlined that serving and protecting the public interest is the ultimate purpose of state institutions. “Cultivating a culture of public integrity by demonstrating commitment at the highest political level within the public sector to enhance public trust and reduce corruption constitutes one of the general principles of the Council of Europe regulations for the officeholders,” she added. She commended Albanian authorities for all the efforts and the hard work done in these last years to effectively fight corruption and to implement GRECO’s recommendations.

The course is hosted on the platform of the Council of Europe Programme on Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP). The functionalities of the HELP platform and concrete instructions for users were introduced during the event. Moreover, the Council of Europe experts and HELP tutors shared a thorough presentation of the course adapted to the national context of Albania and shared the course timelines and rules with the targeted beneficiaries.

This activity was supported by the Action against Economic Crime in Albania, within the framework of the European Union/Council of Europe joint Programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye (Horizontal Facility III), co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe, and the Council of Europe HELP Programme in the Western Balkans.