Diplomatic relations between Albania and the European Economic Community have been established in 1991. The Stabilisation and Association Agreement was signed on 12 June 2006 and entered into force in April 2009. On 28 April 2009, Albania submitted its application for EU membership. In June 2014, the Commission published a report on Albania's progress on judicial reform, and the fight against corruption and organised crime. Following this report, the European Council meeting on 26-27 June 2014 decided that Albania was a candidate country. The granting of candidate status came as the result of reforms which Albania undertook during recent years and the appreciation of EU for the progress attained on Albania's accession path. At the moment this page has been lastly updated Albania and Northern Macedonia are still awaiting for a date to start respective intergovernmental conferences with the EU.
As a candidate country, Albania profits from EU funds under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) in order to carry out comprehensive reforms and strategic investments, and benefits from the participation in EU programmes. Based on respective agreements signed in 2014, Albania participates in EU framework programmes Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 as associated country.
Albania’s endeavours in education within the framework of European integration process aim to adjust the education system to European standards and with labor market needs. These objectives have been reflected in the “Strategy for the development of the pre-university Education 2014-2020” and the Law 80/2015 “On Higher Education and Scientific Research at the Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Albania”.
In the framework of the “Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”, Albania has endorsed the Strategy of South East Europe 2020 “Jobs and Prosperity in a European perspective” (SEE 2020) along with the other countries of the Western Balkans (WB). SEE 2020 aims to get better living conditions in the WB through a range of objectives, among others by enhancing education and competences. To this regard regional cooperation is focused on mobility of researchers and mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
The Albanian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is based on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
In 2010, Albania approved the Law on Albanian Qualification Framework (AQF). Actually, this law is being reviewed. The suggested amendments aim to enhance the implementation of AQF and its referencing to the EQF. In October 2015 Albania has become a full rights member of the Advisory Group of EQF. The European Training Foundation (ETF) is supporting the Albanian Task Force in preparing and performing the referencing process with the EQF.
At the same time MESY is working on the legal amendments in the field of regulated professions, where the main focus lies on the review of Law no. 10171 date 22.10.2009 “On regulated professions” amended and its respective bylaws, aiming at full approximation with the Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Council.
Bologna Process
Albania is full rights member of the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area since 2003. As a member of the Bologna Follow Up Group (BFUG), Albania has actively participated in the working Groups (WG) during 2015-2018 and co-chairing one of them, namely:
- Working Group 1 on Monitoring
- Working Group 2 on Implementation
- Working Group 3 on Policy Development for new EHEA Goals
- Adcisory Group 3 on non-implementation issues
- Advisory group 4 on Revision of Diploma Supplement (co-chaired with Romania) Two meetings of this group have been organized in Albanian in 2016 and 2017.
In 2021 Albania holds the BFUG secretariat
ENIC Centre in Albania
The Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region has been jointly designed by the Council of Europe (CoE) and UNESCO to unite the legal framework at European level and to replace six conventions adopted in this matter by the Council of Europe and UNESCO. The Convention, known as well as the Lisbon Convention, which was opened for signature on April 11, 1997 in Lisbon and entered into force on February1, 1999, and aims to facilitate the recognition of qualifications granted in one Party in another Party. It provides that requests should be assessed in a fair manner and within a reasonable time. Albania ratified the Agreement on membership to the “Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in Europe” with the Law no. 8834, date 22.11.2001. Aiming at implementation of the Lisbon Convention, designing policies and practicing the recognition of qualifications, CoE and UNESCO established the European Network of National Information Centres on academic recognition and mobility (ENIC), which closely cooperates with the NARIC network of the EU.
The Centre ENIC Albania (European National Information Centre)operates at the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth and carries out the recognition of the foreign diplomas since 2004. Starting from January 2017, this process is done online through the government portal e- Albania . The centre is member of the European Network ENIC-NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centre) and cooperates with all member offices by exchanging information aiming at encouraging and supporting the academic mobility.
The ENIC office offers:
- Information on recognition of foreign diplomas, grades and other qualifications,
- Information on Albanian education system and of other countries,
- Counselling about practical questions regarding mobility and recognition, etc.
Western Balkans and the Regional Economic Area (REA)
The Western Balkans (WB) Regional Economic Area (REA) aims at developing an area where goods, services, investments and skilled workers can move without obstacles. This market with almost 20 million consumers will attract several potential investors and will strengthen trade relationships with EU. REA is not a substitute for EU membership, on the contrary the deepening of the economic integration in the region will present an important milestone for preparation of WB countries for EU accession.
The multiannual action plan, endorsed by the WB leaders at the Trieste Summit on 12 July 2017 comprises four areas: trade, investment, mobility and digital market. On mobility, the parties have agreed in principle to remove obstacles to mobility of professionals through signing regional mutual recognition agreements of professional qualifications and removing obstacles to mobility of students, researchers and academics as well. In this process which has recently begun is involved the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth as the institution responsible for academic qualifications and the Ministry of Finance and Economy responsible for professional qualifications. Since the four topics for the achievement of REA are crosscutting, Smart Specialisation was included under the investment pillar.
Smart specialisation is an innovative approach that aims to boost growth and jobs in Europe, by enabling each region to identify and develop its own competitive advantages. Through its partnership and bottom-up approach, smart specialization brings together local authorities, academia, business spheres and the civil society, working for the implementation of long-term growth strategies supported by EU funds.
The Smart Specialisation process in Albania has started in September 2016 through a TAIEX supported conference in which numerous representatives from Higher Education Institutions, businesses and business associations, regional agencies municipalities, etc. participated. The Working Group tasked to draft the Research and Innovation Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) is working on it and it will most likely will be finalized within 2023.