Albania is awarded the European prize for using Information and Communication Technologies

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Evaluation based on the inspiring stories presented by representatives of participating countries

 Author: Erisa ZYKA

Broadcast by ABC News TV

The Albanian society is among the most active European societies in using Information and Communication technologies. In other words, Albanians, and mainly young Albanian men and women use social networks like FB and Twitter, but it was even awarded a prize. Even though non-EU countries, Albania and Serbia are part of an electronic network of 11 countries, among other EU member countries. This was enabled thanks to the Albanian Institute of Science, which has included Albania in the Telecenter Europe network, which, through the optimal use of Information and Communication Technologies, intends not only to fight social exclusion and poverty, but also increase citizen’s participation in political decision-making through electronic instruments.

 At a ceremony that took place in the European Parliament, the winners of an electronic participation contest, which had presented inspiring stories of active citizenship, were awarded prizes of appreciation. Jora Risto is one of the 12  winners among hundreds of stories presented on how European young people use instruments of electronic participation in order to raise public awareness, influence, or solve social issues. The story for which Jora was awarded the price represents an important moment of civic participation in Albania. She presented the story of the ‘Students of November 2013’, who managed to mobilize protests against the process of dissembling the Syrian chemical weapons in Albania.

 In EU member countries, active electronic citizenship may lead not only to protests being organized against certain decisions, but even to changes in the legislation. According to the Executive Director of Telecenter Europe network, Gabriel Rissola, active electronic participation is promoting democratic processes of societies among societies themselves.

 Gabriel Rissola: “The so-called ‘Spanish Revolution’ of 15 May was a process that mobilized a lot of people, millions of citizens in Spain. The entire process started through phone calls with people being informed about a protest that was going to take place in the center of Madrid. There were many proposals made by, let’s say, people’s assemblies, but none was translated into changes to the legislation. Nothing happened. That is why it was very interesting to hear the case of Estonia today, where protests managed to be materialized into 7 new laws”.

Active electronic participation intends to make best use of citizens’ initiative in European decision-making. Based on Lisbon Treaty, if 1 million signatures are collected on a given issue, the European Commission is expected to initiate its legislative process on that issue.

 Broadcast on13 December 2015 on TV ABC NEWS

Phases of the Court process of AIS vs Political Parties for transparency on electoral financies

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In the framework of its efforts to promote electoral transparency, AIS has appealed at the Administrative Court of Appeal against the decision of the Court of Tirana to dismiss the organization’s request towards the main political parties PD, PS and LSI (two of them in power) to make available their information on campaign spending and donations. Considering this issue the first court case where an entity / organization submitted a claim against the three main political parties

The Constitution of Albania, which brings one of the best models of access to information on election finances with no restriction, discrimination, bureaucratic procedures and institutional intermediaries.

AIS will continue to advocate the judicial position that political parties are subjects to the Public Law, and obliged, based on the Constitution to provide information to the citizens, media and other civil actors. Also, transparency over campaign spending and donations is an essential aspect of free and fair election.

Chronological steps of the process

  1. Official request sent to the three main parties on 09.06.2015
  2. Request based on the Law on right of information and the Constitution
  3. The three parties didn’t replied to the official request of AIS
  4. AIS addressed the issue to the Commissioner for the Right of Information (Mr. Besnik Dervishi), but the claim was dismissed
  5. AIS sued the three political parties in the Administrative Court
  6. The court held three sessions, in which were present only the representatives of the Socialist Party and the Commissioner for the right of Information
  7. The last session held on November 10th the court decided to dismiss the AIS claim
  8. AIS appealed the decision in the Administrative Court of Appeal,
  9. In this process AIS is represented by the Law firm Gumi & Associates
  10. Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal
  11. Request for acceleration of adjudication
  12. AIS addresses the Strasbourg Court. Albania does not guarantee trial within a reasonable time (Article 6 of the ECHR)
  13. Administrative Court of Appeal Decision dated 22.11. 2017 with no. 4916 (5236)
  14. AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

Important Documents of the Court Process:

Request for Information PS                  

Request for Information PD

Request for Information LSI

Complaint for the Commissioner of the right to information

Law suit act                       

Court Call document

Decision of the Administrative Court

Appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal

Request for acceleration of adjudication

AIS Request to Strasbourg Court (PDF)

Decision Administrative Court of Appeal

Request: AIS addresses the Court of Strasbourg in the absence of both a High Court and a Constitutional Court in the country, asking this court to review the merits of a case, which is now in a process of recourse.

 

 

Invitation for participation: Hackathon Albania 2015 “Life in another city”

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Hackathon Albania is a yearly event organized to celebrate Open Data and promote their use, adoption, and development of new exciting apps. This year, the event takes place on December 19th 2015 with the topic “Life in another city”.

The event is open to individuals, analysts; engineers; (storytellers); scout programmers, designers or students able to develop an application based on Open Data.

How to prepare for the Hackathon (Hacker+Marathon) ?

Everyone can collect data about its city or town (not just digital) and create a map or an application. This edition triggers data analyses and applications of various themes affecting different aspects of life in Albanian cities regarding

  • Economy, employment, enterprises
  • Infrastructure including urban distances, buildings, forests ect.
  • Technological development and Internet access in various cities
  • Demography

All those who would like to participate in this event, may be registered for free in the following link : Hackathon Albania 2015  or join the event on the facebook page of the Albanian Institute of Science

Thank you in advance!

The impact of Open Data in the democratization of fiscal policy

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Within the framework of OpenBudgets.eu project, AIS participated at the workshop “Democratization of Fiscal Policy” organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation International and OKF Germany, on 30th November and 1st December, 2015. The workshop aimed at creating an open-source model that would integrate all Budget data and transactions expenditures for various public sectors to foster better understand what role open data plays.

AIS promoter of open budgeting through the implementation of Open Data Albania and Open Spending platforms, presented different models that made transparency over state budget expenditures and treasury transactions. Also, the use of linked data helped in the identification of conflict of interest, cases of corruption and nepotism in Albania.

Different civil society organizations such as: Fair-Play, Hasdana, k-monitor, UNDP, journalists and policymakers, worked together on the processes of partnership-building, the acquisition of the best open budget practices, as well as shaping concrete actions in the Democratization of fiscal policy.12309084_10153157338517051_1514968783_n12325358_10153157338577051_101162729_nUntitled

Declaration of assets of elected Mayors on 21st of June 2015

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In the framework of Money, Government and Politics program, updated data are released in Spending Data Albania portal, “Money and Power” column, about declared assets of newly elected Mayors of June 21st, 2015, as well as their relatives’ assets. The data are published in compliance with access to information, transparency and accountability principles. Through these publications every journalist or citizen can be informed of the annual income of each mayor such us income from rents, bargains, intellectual property, gifts, opening of inheritance acts etc.

  • In case of employment of the family members through declarations, we can provide information on labor relations in the public or private sector and in some cases investigative journalists can assess whether it is necessary to undertake an investigation on possible conflict of interest.
  • Statements also contain information on their income abroad such as credits in foreign banks and real estate outside the country.
  • The release of these data creates the possibility for citizens to monitor, if the Mayors will favor the development of specific properties and businesses.

As we would like to thank you for your attention, we want to remind you on the eventual use of the data contained in our publications without any restriction. But on the other hand we would like that you always cite Spending Data Albania portal, Money and Power column, developed in the framework of our organization program AIS titled  Money, Government and Politics.

Share PSI 2.0 Workshop in Berlin: Maximizing interoperability — core vocabularies, location-aware data and more

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Albanian Institute of Science (AIS)  is being represented by Besjana Hysa at the workshop Share-PSI 2.0 taking place in Berlin on 25- 26 of November. The workshop is explicitly interested in ideas, concepts and solutions that directly or indirectly address the interoperability of open data and PSI. In order to identify best practices the workshop with focus in the areas of Public Sector Information, cultural heritage, commercial and scientific data that are also relevant.12265796_10206461028298482_7907977692778259273_o12247998_10206461029618515_9218758947201088749_o12291737_10206461030058526_3307530724395671215_o

Spending Transparency for Municipalities

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Open Governance – Good Governance

USAID/Albania and PLGP, in collaboration with the Albanian Institute of Science (AIS), has launched an “Open Governance as Good Governance” initiative. This initiative will draw upon the AIS project experience to make model municipalities’ budgets more transparent by publishing municipal finance information using an Open Data format.

Read more

ODA publishes well-stuctured data for corporates that functions as media associations

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Shoqëri Biznesi (alb): Open Corporates Albania that functions as Media

Through the publication in one of its sections the Open Data Albania Portal makes possible the visualization of data on Media Associations.

 The data gives information on:

  • The Media Associations in Albania
  • Their legal form
  • Who are the shareholders and the associates
  • Their annual profit

These data are available to the section Open Corporate Albania by selecting at Corporate Category “Media Associations”.

 The illustration in the attached image 1 shows how to select the category

 Up to now there are 111 Audio-Visual Media subjects

Once you have clicked one subject demonstrated in an alphabetical order (first with a letter A) like AV N. By clicking you can see the general information of the company. Then you can click the visualization that display pictures on the companies profit  over years, the distribution of capital by the associates and shareholders of the company.

Clicking at the Treasury Transactions  are displayed all the values that AVN has benefited from budgetary institutions. In this case the company has received 3 transactions from 2 institutions.

Attached the illustration (figure 2) indicates where to click for further information on the company.

Like for the AVN you can find data about 111 media subjects.  The section provides information on companies suspended or closed.

You are pleased  to use such information without restriction, but always with the suggestion to quote the indicated portal where the data is available. At the same time at the Open Corporates Albania you can find data for different  sectors and companies.

shoqerimediatike-oda avn-oda

AIS against the Draft Law on Defamation

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AIS as a promoter of Open Data Albania joins the call of BIRN Albania against the Draft Law on the Defamation. This draft law foresees and open the way to the imprisonment of journalists. Any claim for criticism or a negative analysis for corruption will serve for stakeholders as a defamation reason. Until our problematic judicial system will prove the claim, who knows how many journalists will be unjustly in jail?

AIS joins the call of BIRN Albania http://www.reporter.al/kriminalizimi-i-shpifjes-ndaj-zyrtareve-te-larte-kercenim-per-demokracine/

The government is asked to withdraw the draft law that criminalize the defamation against the elected high state officials.  http://www.parlament.al/web/pub/pligj_shtese_7895_kodi_penal_24268_1.pdf

Also, AIS urges the Albanian Parliament to not pass this law and invites all civil actors to join the campaign.