23/09/2020
Spain has provided the competition authorities in Albania with support and facilitated the exchange of knowledge with more than 30 missions to the country
For over a year, Spanish specialists from the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) worked hand-in-hand with their Albanian counterparts to carry out the Strengthening Albania’s competition authority twinning project.
Specialists from both countries have done everything possible to fulfil the objective of this twinning project, the aim of which was to strengthen the capacities of the Albanian Competition Authority (ACA) in the protection of free and effective market competition on the basis of the current legal framework and the acquis communautaire. This was driven by the exchange of knowledge and best practices between the counterparts of the Spanish and Albanian competition agencies.
Specifically, the twinning project worked in the following areas: to increase the ACA’s abilities to plan, conduct inspections, and resolve competition cases; to support Albanian legislation with relevant EU rules in the scope of competition law and policy and develop capacity building actions to prepare for membership negotiations.
Despite the challenges that have arisen throughout its execution, such as the earthquake that struck Albania in November 2019 and, recently, the crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the project has continued without pause. Over the last year, more than 30 missions, a study visit and various visibility actions were carried out. The desire to continue with the project remained strong through close collaboration with the partner institutions.
In the final activity, CNMC specialists explained to their Albanian colleagues the details regarding the calculation of volume in both penalty procedures and control over company mergers, as well as the preparation of an approach toward the calculation of turnover and the setting of fines.
This was the last training activity carried out within the framework of the twinning project, which was undertaken within an e-learning modality through the connect.fiiapp.es platform, made available by FIIAPP.
