Jeremie Pellet, the General Director of Expertise France - the French public agency specializing in international technical cooperation and the second largest in Europe - recently visited the Albanian capital. This visit signifies France's heightened commitment to advancing reforms and enhancing Albania's cooperation with France and the European Union, as part of Albania's EU membership process. France will provide assistance in several areas, including environmental justice, digitalization, continuous training of magistrates in EU legislation, cybercrime protection expertise, strengthening human capacities for Free Legal Aid, and preventing crimes against minors.

During the visit, Mr. Pellet and his delegation met with the Minister of Justice, Ulsi Manja, where they agreed to soon formalize their cooperation with an agreement.

Albanian Daily News conducted an interview with Mr. Pellet, during which he elaborated on Expertise France as a subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group). He also detailed France's focus on the Western Balkans and discussed specific projects related to Albania.

Commenting on the bilateral relations, Mr. Pellet noted that the two recent high-level visits, namely President Macron’s to Tirana and PM Edi Rama’s to Paris, definitely “were a token of the quality of the relationship between our two countries and the determination to strengthen it”.

-Dear Director, thank you for this opportunity. Firstly, would you like to share with Albanian Daily News readers some information about the mission of Expertise France and its presence in the Western Balkans?

-Expertise France is France’s public agency and interministerial actor in charge of international technical cooperation, the second-largest in Europe. As a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group), it designs and implements projects that sustainably strengthen public policies in developing and emerging countries.

We are now Europe's second largest technical expertise agency, we have tripled Expertise France's activity in six years, and we still have strong growth prospects, driven by France's ambitions in the context of the re-launch of its development policy, and by the European Union.

The countries of the Western Balkans are undergoing major political and economic changes, all sharing the same perspective of European integration. Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia have begun EU membership procedures, which will require structural reforms. Expertise France, financed by AFD and the European Union, is working with these countries, with a significant presence in Albania, to support an inclusive, low-carbon growth trajectory.

-Which is the current state of Expertise France’s involvement and contribution with projects in Albania?

-Albania is our main country of intervention in the region, with EUR 12.8M deployed through 5 national projects and 4 regional projects, on justice, biodiversity, energy, gender and economic empowerment. 

Expertise France began its activity in Albania at the end of 2019 with two projects on and energy transition financed by AFD, followed in 2023 by a project on environmental protection issues and reducing the country's carbon footprint. More recently, in 2024, Expertise France signed a project on environmental and climate justice, again financed by AFD.

Expertise France also implements projects on behalf of the European Union, notably the EU4Justice project. Finally, at the end of 2022, the worldwide facility for employment and social protection Socieux+ opened a specific window for the countries of the Western Balkans, managed by Expertise France.

- Would you please share your assessment as to the specific areas that would deserve a closer attention by Expertise France and AFD? For instance, I would single out the justice system, namely the School of Magistrates whose preparatory work to fill in the expected vacancies following the justice reform, should have started earlier…

-Justice reform is a priority for the Albanian authorities and I had the opportunity address these issues on Tuesday when I met the Minister of Justice. We are delighted to be able to continue strengthening our links with the development this year of two justice projects will be deployed by Expertise France, one on strengthening the efficiency, integrity and professionalism of the judicial system by improving the capacities of the Albanian School of Magistrates, and the other on a regional scale on environmental and climate justice to develop citizen participation in political decisions with a high environmental impact.

Often, in a new area of intervention, which was the case for the Western Balkans, there is a period of adaptation, time to understand the context, time to forge links with partners, which was the case.  There may have been a slight delay at the start, but the project is now underway.

-President Macron’s Tirana visit recently and our PM’s return visit have marked an intensification of bilateral relations. Against this background, would it be correct to say that a more active presence of Expertise France in Albania is to be expected?

-These two high-level visits definitely were a token of the quality of the relationship between our two countries and the determination to strengthen it.

As part of the official visit of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to Paris and his meeting with President Emmanuel Macron in April 2024, the Albanian Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the AFD Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding to extend their bilateral cooperation in environmental protection.

Marie Hélène Loison, Deputy CEO of AFD, insisted that: “We are eager to use all the cooperation tools of AFD and Expertise France to support the Albanian Government in its path towards EU membership. This agreement defines more precisely the framework of our cooperation and lays a solid foundation for an even more fruitful partnership in the environmental sector in the coming years.”

A more active presence of Expertise France in Albania is indeed to be expected. For several years now, we have been seeking to strengthen our presence in the Western Balkans in order to diversify the geographical areas in which we operate and to meet the expressed needs and expectations of governments in the region with regard to French expertise. In this respect, we would be delighted to support the reforms put in place by Albania as part of its European trajectory. In this context, I decided to embark on a tour of the region. Having visited Bosnia-Herzegovina last year, I wanted to focus on Albania in particular this time before heading to Serbia.

Finally, I’d like to emphasise the European engagement of Expertise France, whose half of the funding comes from the EU. We’re committed to work as member of the Team Europe, implementing programs with other EU Member States’ development cooperation agencies. 

As of May 2023, Expertise France has been assuming the Practitioners’ Network Presidency, and this year with Austrian Development Agency. This visit has been a unique opportunity to strengthen relationships across PN Members, their in-country representations, the EU Delegation, key Albanian authorities and partners, and financial institutions.

- Albania is making a certain progress regarding the EU integration process, although a lot remains to be done and the year 2030 as a membership date so far seems more of a wishful thinking. Which are your institution’s medium and long-term objectives in the country?

- While France's strategy for the Western Balkans focuses on AFD Group operations, Expertise France has been paying greater attention to this region for the past 4-5 years, with a real desire to support the reforms undertaken as part of the EU accession process, particularly in the area of the acquis communautaire.

As a result of the new methodology for joining the European Union, Albania's ability to take part in certain European programmes is a strong expectation of the authorities. Expertise France could support this gradual integration process by increasing exchanges between the public administrations concerned.

The authorities have called on France and other Member States to support this work. There are also plans to fund local experts to work alongside teams from the technical ministries.

There are many possibilities for developing projects, and these will have to be in line with the wishes of the Albanian authorities and the priorities of our French and European donors. / ADN