Press Release

The Hague, 29 October 2021. The General Prosecutor of Albania Mr. Olsian Çela and the President of Eurojust Mr. Ladislav Hamran opened today the Office of the Albanian Liaison Prosecutor at the Eurojust headquarters in The Hague. Today's ceremony follows the appointment of the first Liaison Prosecutor of Albania at this agency in January this year, Ms. Fatjona Memcaj.

"This is a significant day for Albania and a test of commitment for the future to the European family. Together we will be stronger! - stated the General Prosecutor during the ceremony. 
The President of Eurojust Mr. Ladislav Hamran praised the collaboration with the Albanian authorities in opening the Liaison Prosecutor's Office at Eurojust as a drive to further strengthen the judicial cooperation. 
The ceremony was also attended by Mr Arben Kraja, Chief Prosecutor at the Special Prosecution Office, Ms. Fatjona Memcaj, the Liaison Prosecutor of Albania to Eurojust, the Ambassador of Albania to the Netherlands Adia Sakiqi, the representatives of the IPA 2019 project "Fight against Serious Crimes in the Western Balkans" and other members of the Albanian Prosecution delegation.

The opening ceremony of the Albanian Liaison Prosecutor's office at Eurojust was followed by the annual evaluation meeting of the cooperation agreement between Albania and Eurojust. 

The General Prosecutor Olsian Çela assessed among other things that “The path we have taken will enable us to consolidate experiences and capacities as well as to increase the cohesion of our organised institutional response to the serious threat that the transnational organised crime is posing to our societies.”.

The President of Eurojust praised the work of Albania at Eurojust and presented the priorities of the agency's work for the coming year. The General Prosecutor, on his part, assessed that it is crucial to increase the role of Eurojust in terms of international cooperation in the criminal field between Albania and other member countries of this agency.

The cross-border judicial co-operation between Albania and Eurojust has been increased with the appointment of a liaison prosecutor. During the period January-September 2021 the Albanian Liaison Office at Eurojust has registered 20 new cases at the request of the Albanian authorities and 3 new agreements of Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) have been signed, while during the period 2016-2020 a total of 84 cases have been registered.

During the two-day visit to The Hague, October 28-29, 2021, the Albanian prosecution delegation met with partners and leaders of the Dutch prosecution institutions. The meeting with the Mayor of The Hague Jan Van Zanen was also part of the program of the visit.