Albania makes progress in improving its legislation on competition

After much work on the design and planning of strategies aimed at ensuring the full achievement of the objectives of the project, the unfavourable and limiting scenario derived from the COVID-19 crisis has led the Twinning project on competition in Albania to continue with its activities online.  

For two weeks, a working group made up of various specialists from the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and members of the Albanian Competition Authority will continue with actions aimed at supporting the improvement of the Albanian legal framework on Competition and bringing it in line with European Union regulations. 

These actions focus on the analysis and preparation of guidelines on fundamental aspects of competition procedures, such as the Clemency Programme or conventional termination in penalty procedures.   

A suitable and detailed development regulation on penalty procedures is essential both to provide effective instruments for the application of competition regulations, and to provide the parties with the required legal certainty and due procedural guarantees at each stage of the investigation into Albanian Competition.  

The Spanish specialists, together with their Albanian counterparts, will also continue with the preparation of the commentary on the Albanian Competition Law, in accordance with the case-law and legal doctrine of the European Union. 

Under the slogan “Developing sound cooperation for free and effective competition!”, the project aims to further strengthen the administrative and institutional capacities of the Competition Authority in Albania, in order to ensure its role in protecting free competition in the markets in that country, based on the legal framework in force and the body of EU law. 

With a duration of one year, the European Twinning project managed by FIIAPP has been implemented since last July 2019 by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), with the aim of strengthening the capacities of the Albanian Competition Authority (ACA) in protecting free and effective competition in the market.