04 Apr EITI Multi Stakeholder Groups Meeting
On March 28, 2018, the Multi Stakeholder Group (MSG) and the National EITI Secretariat, organized a meeting at the premises of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy.
The review and discussion of the 2018-2019 EITI Work Plan; Action Plan concerning Corrective Actions defined by the International EITI Board regarding the Validation Process in Albania; Updates and status of the Commodity Trading Pilot Project procedures initiated by the International EITI Secretariat in Oslo and discussion on the beginning of the 2017 EITI Report practices were the topics of the agenda discussion.
Mr. Kamberi, EITI National Secretariat Director initially made a synthetic presentation about the National Secretariat activities for the 3-month period of 2018.
The very positive assessment that Albania provided in the International Validation Process by marking a Significant Progress in the implementation of the process and the EITI standard and in promoting Transparency and good Governance of natural resources was re-emphasized in the meeting.
In the 2018 International EITI Progress Report, Albania enters into those three countries that have made real progress regarding the published information on the process followed by the Albanian government for determining the purchasers of oil produced from the state-owned share as well as income derived from these sales.
In the process of preparing the Work Plan, in accordance with the National Agenda for Natural Resources Governance, the center of EITI activities will be the production and publication of the official EITI report and by taking into account the 2016 Report Recommendations.
In the conceptualization of the Work Plan are included priorities such as: The focus on Local Government revenues from royalty to maximize the impact on local communities; Strengthening the cooperation with the local government for capacity building for the EITI process; Improving the Legal Framework for Transparency, including the BO component (Public Register for BO in 2020); Treatment of Commodity Trading for reporting transactions from the sale of oil and its by-products; Impact of Extractive Industries in the Environment; Open Data and Creating a Database Moving From the First Phase of Information in the Second Phase of Data Usage; Stakeholder Capacity Building and Public Information on the Benefits of EITI Implementation; Support to Civil Society; Creation of Mining Cadaster, etc.
Mr. Aliko, head of the Multi Stakeholder Group (MSG), discussed in detail the activities of the 2018-2019 EITI Work Plan and decided that after comments and the updates made by each MSG member, the Final Version of the Work Plan should be published on the National EITI Secretariat website.
Suggestions and proposals were given during the meeting on Corrective Actions emerged from the Validation Process, which should be addressed by May 13, 2018 and where the MSG and especially the Civil Society members will prepare and present a concrete Action Plan for the correction and optimization of issues formulated by the International EITI Board, in the Corrective Actions matrix, which mainly relate to the engagement of Civil Society in this process.
In the context of addressing Corrective Actions, was discussed the engagement on issues related to: Social Impact Costs, Distribution of Local Income from royalty and the obligations deriving from Agreements and Contracts , Data quality in the reporting process, Improvement of legal framework related to transparency in the extractive industry, etc.
Special attention was paid to the meeting to the progress of Commodity Trading Pilot Project Transparency implemented by the International EITI Secretariat. Representatives of Albpetrol guaranteed a maximum commitment and support and in cooperation with the selected Consultant will enable finalizing the Pilot Project within planned time frame.