EU Statement in response to the Report of the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Michel Tarran

As delivered by EU in Response to the Report of the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Michel Tarran at the Permanent Council, Vienna, 20 November 2025.

  1. The European Union warmly welcomes Ambassador Michel Tarran to the Permanent Council and thanks him for this comprehensive report.
  2. In light of the current challenging geopolitical context, marked by the ongoing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the OSCE and its field operations continue to be key in promoting and safeguarding security and stability across the OSCE area. We welcome Albania’s strategic commitment to our common European values, demonstrated through full alignment with the EU’s foreign and security policy, including the adoption of EU restrictive measures following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

  3. We congratulate the Presence for its continued and effective work across the three Dimensions, carefully tailored to the country’s priority needs. We welcome its whole-of-society approach, its engagement at central and local levels, its partnership with the Albanian institutions, and its efforts to strengthen civil society involvement, mainstream gender, youth and regional perspectives across programmes, in complementarity and cooperation with OSCE structures and autonomous institutions, as well as international partners.

  4. The EU welcomes Albania's continued engagement in regional cooperation and notes the contacts with neighbouring countries to address important bilateral issues and to ensure good neighbourly relations, which remain essential.

  5. We commend the support provided by the Presence in key areas for the host country, such as democratisation, enhancing the rule of law and support for the ongoing comprehensive justice reform, combating organised crime and corruption, promoting media freedom, environmental governance, enhancing the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of the institutions, and border management.

  6. The EU welcomes the Presence’s comprehensive efforts to support the country in combatting terrorism, tackling money laundering, trans-national and international organised crime. Against the backdrop of frequent cyber incidents, we welcome the Presence’s intensified efforts in cyber security education and awareness.

  7. We particularly welcome the Presence’s contribution to strengthening the rule of law and supporting the ongoing comprehensive justice reform, including the expanded assistance to the Constitutional Court, the High Judicial Council and the Special Court against Corruption and Organised Crime. Securing solid and irreversible achievements, including in the area of rule of law, remains decisive for meeting the requirements of EU membership. We welcome that the vetting process has continued to advance steadily, produced tangible results and established key standards.

  8. We reiterate the importance of media freedom and pluralism, of transparency of media ownership, of ensuring media independence and impartiality, including both public and private media, as well as safety of journalists.

  9. We commend the Presence’s leading role, together with ODIHR, in supporting electoral legislation reform, strengthening institutional capacities and promoting inclusive and informed voter participation to ensure transparent and professional management of the 2025 elections We also commend the commitment of the Albanian authorities in advancing the electoral reform in an inclusive manner and underline the importance of implementing all outstanding ODIHR recommendations.

  10. The EU emphasises the importance of activities aimed at strengthening the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as at combating trafficking in human beings, including child trafficking and labour exploitation. We reiterate the need to continue the activities aimed at promoting effective policies concerning the protection of rights of persons belonging to all minorities. Furthermore, we welcome the adoption of the related secondary legislation and urge Albania to swiftly implement the three pending by-laws relating to the 2017 framework law on the protection of persons belonging to national minorities. We also call for enhanced efforts to consolidate property rights.

  11. The EU reaffirms its commitment to enlargement, which remains a strategic priority of the European Union.

  12. In conclusion, we wish Ambassador Tarran and his able team every success in their activities.