On April 5th 2024, Albania's Prime Minister's Office hosted a working meeting with UNOPS’ “Knowledge for Reform Action” program expert from Croatia. The discussion, which included Albanian negotiation teams, focused on the EU's Growth Plan for Albania.

The key objective was to leverage Croatia's experience in preparing and implementing the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).  As the Growth Plan draws upon the RRF's framework, Croatia's insights proved invaluable for Albania's planning process.

The discussions covered key aspects such as:

• EU budget specifics: Understanding the complexities of the EU budget allocation process.
• Reform Focused: Developing effective reforms within the Growth Plan framework.
• Organizational Structure: Leveraging Croatia's experience in structuring an effective negotiation team to optimize Albania's collaboration with the European Commission.
• Fund Allocation & Reform Linkage: Ensuring a clear connection between allocated funds and specific reforms.

The Albanian negotiation team emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing with Croatia, a frontrunner in implementing the EU's Recovery Plan. This collaboration will support Albania to effectively utilize the Growth Plan and advance its EU integration goals.

Furthermore, Albania's Prime Minister's Office, Department of Policy and EU Integration   Director, Mr. Adrian Kamenica, acknowledged UNOPS Austria's valuable contribution via the joint UNOPS Norway program: “We appreciate UNOPS Austria's timely and effective support to Albania's EU integration efforts and reform processes”.

Presently, the UNOPS Norway joint program is supporting Albania's EU negotiation efforts through horizontal technical assistance in key areas within Clusters 5-Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion  and Cluster 3-Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth .