The Albanian Government has established institutional infrastructure to support regulatory reform and developed a Regulatory Reform Action Plan in March 2006 to guide the implementation of reform actions regarding improving the quality of regulation. This Action Plan concerns:

-          addressing urgent needs regarding harmonization and simplification of the regulatory reform in important sectors

-          initiating the framework for the establishment of institutions and procedures that will guarantee a friendly, transparent and efficient business environment.

The Action-Plan determined four areas of focus for regulatory reform in Albania:

-          development of the managerial system of the regulatory reform;

-          improvement of existing legal framework through the removal of administrative barriers to business;

-          improvement of the quality of the new regulatory framework;

-          systematic monitoring and evaluation of the regulatory reform.

 

Ex-ante impact assessment is carried out as an integral part of the explanatory statement accompanying the draft law and they covers: fiscal impact assessment and assessment of expected social and economic impacts.

 

The Government Regulatory Reform Action Plan as of March 2006 and the World Bank BERIS project signed in November 2006 attempted the introduction of the Regulatory Impact Analysis method in the country.

 

What concerns the consultation process in the legislative process, public consultation and transparency are formalized, in the Rules of Procedures of the Government as well as in the Rules of Procedures of the Assembly. A consultation with civil society organizations whose activity is related to the draft-law is intended to happen as one of the first steps of the law-drafting process. Draft laws of particular importance can be discussed in broad circles where representatives of state institutions, NGOs, experts of international organizations or institutions etc. can be included.

The consultation process however is not mandatory and the different stakeholders are often complaining about the short time they receive for providing comments, or about not being asked at all

 

Publicity of law-adopting activity is also a requirement according to the Rules of Procedures of the Assembly, and is more complete in comparison to the public consultations

 

The legislative initiative is up to the Council of Ministers, every Member of Parliament or at least 20.000 voters.

The process of drafting laws begins with a preliminary evaluation of the initiative which serves as the base for the responsible minister in order to specify:

-          the issues that are to be regulated,

-          the forms of participation and the principal steps for the realization and coordination of the legislative process,

-          the respective time periods for their realization,

-          the responsible structures,

-          the human and material resources assigned to co-operate with the legal structure in preparing each draft law.

 

A draft law must be accompanied by an explanatory statementand a report of the evaluation of budgetary expenses required for its implementation.