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
Transparent data about the assets of high officials in the Justice System
/in Events, Press Releases /by adminThe Spending Data Albania portal has published some data about the assets and economic interests of some high officials of the Justice System under its Money and Power section.
Thus, you may find the latest annual incomes of the three Presidents of the Republic, i.e. Mr. Rexhep MEIDANI, Mr. Alfred MOISIU, and Mr. Bamir TOPI, by using the search filter in the ‘President of the Republic’ category.
http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/2
You may also find the Declaration of Assets of the two latest General Prosecutors, i.e. Ms. Ina RAMA and Mr. Thedhori SOLLAKU, by using the search filter for ‘General Prosecutor’
http://www.spending.data.al/sq/moneypower/list/pos_id/3
In the same section, you may also find the official declarations of assets of some judges of the high level and judges of the Court for Serious Crimes. This data section is enriched as part of the activities organized by the Albanian Institute of Science (AIS) for the implementation of Money Government &Politics Program (MG&P).
Local Government Law. The Election Situation Room against three mandates for locally elected officials
/in Events, Press Releases /by adminTirana, 15 December 2015
The Election Situation Room has asked the Assembly of Albania not to change the original draft law on local government, which restricted the time in office of locally elected officials to 2 mandates.
The latest decision to increase the number of mandates to 3 is considered a regress by the Election Room. According to the representatives of this Room, this decision is a move backward, because all the mayors, who had won a third mandate, were actually criminally prosecuted for abusing their power.
Gerti Shella (INFOCIP): The Albanian experience with the local government dictates today more than ever the need to restrict the mandates of locally elected officials to two. At the beginning of this year only, the mayors of the most important cities, who had already two mandates each, and ran for a third one, were criminally prosecuted for misuse of duty and corruption. Those prosecuted included also tens of commune mayors.
Aranita Brahaj (AIS and Za’Lart Albania 2015): The observation of election situations in the 2015 local government elections showed that where the existing mayors reran in these elections, there were higher expenses and more cases of misused of the public administration for purposes of electoral campaign. The Za’Lart platform received reports from citizens about problems with the transfer of voters’ names on the civil register. In municipalities, where existing mayors reran, there were also cases of pressure being exercised to intimidate voters through public services, violating thus the principles of fair competition among the candidates. Therefore, the law should not tolerate the use of power for such a long time.
Kristaq Kume: We are going to use such restrictive mechanisms such as the restriction of the right to be elected to no more than two mandates”
The changing of the original local government draft law is, according to the Election situation Room, against the recommendations made by the international bodies, as well as against the consultation process with the interest groups.
Shekulli Newspaper: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only
Ballkanweb: Election Room – Mayors should be elected for two mandates only
MAPO Newspaper: Declaration of the Civil Society – Draft Law on Local Government makes negative deviation
Albania is awarded the European prize for using Information and Communication Technologies
/in Media Coverage @en /by adminEvaluation 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
/in Events, Homeposts, Homeposts, Press Releases /by adminIn 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
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”
/in Events, Homeposts, Press Releases /by adminHackathon 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
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
/in Events, Homeposts /by adminWithin 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.
Declaration of assets of elected Mayors on 21st of June 2015
/in Events, Homeposts /by adminIn 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.
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.
Money Government & Politics in the Media December 2015
/in Homeposts /by adminShare PSI 2.0 Workshop in Berlin: Maximizing interoperability — core vocabularies, location-aware data and more
/in Events /by adminAlbanian 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.
Spending Transparency for Municipalities
/in Homeposts, Past Projects /by adminOpen 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.