Albania has adopted an audiovisual media law, partially aligned with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive since 2013. Despite this law has been in force for almost 10 years, it is noted that its implementation and enforcement is very weak. Among others, this low performance is also a consequence of the fact that there is a lack of awareness among the Albanian public and within the sector on the importance of a free and independent media. The non-implementation of the law is evident when monitoring the various television programs in which legal standard are often not respected on issues such as impartiality in the provision of information, protection of personal data, protection of minors, advertising, product placement, intellectual property, etc. The situation is even more worrying considering that, according to some reports, journalists and media managers themselves have very little knowledge of the above mentioned issues. This project comes at a key moment of Albania's European membership process. In this regard, this project aims to contribute as a facilitator to disseminate practical and theoretical knowledge on media freedom and its importance in building democracy. The main objective of the project is to build capacity by increasing awareness and knowledge on media issues, on European directives in the field, on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and European best practices. The project aims to build capacities in the field of media freedom and EU media law with the aim of increasing and expanding awareness in media professional circles, civil society, youth activism on media rights and its importance in the EU accession process.

GEOBIZ project consortium built out of 15 academic and 3 business partners together with 5 affiliated partners is addressing partners needs regarding geoinformatics business and academic sector in five European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova and Montenegro.Geoinformatics ecosystem, as a link between technical and ICT subject and professionals, is part of digital industrial revolution characterized with fast technology driven changes and development of new knowledges and skills necessary for efficient use of this technology for satisfaction of user needs. Rapid change is creating situation in which academic sector faces problems. It can't cope with fast changes and lags in introduction of new content in educational process. This results in situation that new professionals finishing academic education do not master necessary knowledge and skills in field of geoinformatics and therefore are not well prepared for industry. Ultimately business sector suffers from such situation lacking new experts which can contribute in their development.Therefore, GEOBIZ project aims to design and establish new business-academia cooperation platform in field of geoinformatics in targeted countries which will bring together geoinformatics subjects, foster their cooperation and create situation in which all stakeholders will benefit. Based on this cooperation HEI's will improve quality of education of geoinformatics and related courses using business-driven problem-based cases which are prepared (designed) by geoinformatics companies for use in educational process and thus modernise their geoinformatics courses.This modernisation will result in raising attraction of geoinformatics studies for students, deliver well educated and prepared professional, satisfy needs of business sector for expert work force and ultimately offer to society geoinformatics sector capable to answer on societal needs in efficient, timely and cost benefit manner.

From June 2003, Albania – along with other Western Balkans countries – was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership. In 2009, Albania submitted its formal application for EU membership. In Albania's application (in 2010), the Commission assessed that before accession negotiations could be formally opened, Albania still had to achieve a necessary degree of compliance and fulfil the membership criteria and also need to meet the 12 key priorities. During these years, Albania has worked in the improvement of subject to completion of key measures in the areas of judicial and rule of law, and fundamental rights, public administration reform and revision of the parliamentary rules of procedures. Despite all of this, also the economic criteria are still to meet.In this context, University should do their job to support students, provide extracurricular activities and by distributing updated and up-to-date information. This involves providing invaluable contextualised knowledge, insights and locally relevant recommendations for policy formulation and implementation; solving existential problems; and producing new knowledge that can be adapted for economic, political and social improvement.The aim of the module is to introduce the students to the main integration theories, which have emerged in order to explain the process and outcomes of integration in Europe. The module aims to introduce and expand the understanding of the process of European integration through the evolution process and comparative approach of integration theories.

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are no new phenomenon. Their impact has greatly increased with the growth of financial markets and their globalization, thus affecting not only developing countries, but also developed ones. Also, their economic and political importance has increased significantly. Since normative rules may not apply across multiple countries, international cooperation between governments becomes even more important, but at the same time decision-making becomes more difficult. The RAIFFE project is designed to inform and educate people about IFF, and to provide professional training to people on the issue, contributing to sustainable economic development. At present, at the Faculty of Economy at the University of Tirana, there isn’t any modules that is particularly focused on the illicit financial flows while there are some modules at Faculty of Law related with financial crime or Crime law but not going in detailed and at comprehensive level. Also, there is not any published book in this context and neither any other material regarding the topic.In order for the program to be as appropriate as possible and in line with the EU, an analysis and compliance of EU standards with those of Albania on the issue of Illicit financial flow in particular will be carried out. So, the general objective of the RAIFFE project is the realization of special modules which will address illicit financial flow topics and will address their compatibility between Albania and the EU. These modules are intended to be included as separate topics in some subjects of the Faculty of Economy and the Faculty of Law at the University of Tirana, thus introducing the compatibility of financial illicit standards with the EU.The main purpose of the RAIFFE project is to serve as a tool for informing, educating, and raising awareness about crime illicit financial flow of a wide range of individuals including university students, academic staff and other stakeholders.

As the EU integration is a strategic priority for the Western Balkans region countries, fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria has played and will continue to play a crucial role in this region EU accession and enlargement policies in general. The EU accession processes in the WB have shown to be complex, difficult, and with an increased need to strengthen the EU monitoring, as they relate to internal transformation of the political and economic systems, in terms of developing and improving democracies, organizing internal markets, and boosting competitiveness, requiring for long-lasting reforms and sustainable policy measures. The role of the Institute of European Studies, as a focal and inclusive point for EU issues, comes with the responsibility of disseminating knowledge and building bridges to involve all interested actors and stakeholders in understanding the importance of: (1) criteria-fulfilment in the region countries pathway towards EU integration, and (2) assessing the countries’ political and economic performance in a comparative approach. This module aims at achieving a better understanding of EU conditionality by offering all interested stakeholders, relevant theoretical knowledge and measurable tools for assessing WB countries’ pathways towards higher democratization and economic/market performance. The proposed project will aim at putting the topic of EU enlargement, conditionality and country’s performance assessment at the centre of public discussion. Specific objectives of the project relate to: (a) Raising awareness on the importance and implications of EU conditionality and criteria for a WB candidate country performance, through sharing knowledge/expertise and providing a common understanding, ensuring for actors inclusiveness; and (b) Building capacities primarily for the students beyond an offered module and/or enhanced curricula, through a series of participatory and interactive extra-curricular and interdisciplinary activities.