JOB DESCRIPTION

Under the overall supervision of the Head of Office, direct supervision of the IOM Program Coordinator, under the guidance of a team leader, the follow/expert will be responsible for supporting the Line Ministries in strengthening the Albanian public administration (as the main beneficiary) in the process of the legal approximation and harmonization with the EU Acquis.

The Albanian diaspora experts engaged by IOM Albania will work closely with the Department of Policy and EU Integration/National Unit for EU Approximation within the Prime Minister’s Office and where necessary with other Albanian institutions in the above priority sectors and domains to provide strategic guidance, develop tools and frameworks, deliver capacity-building activities, and support internationalization efforts. All of the work will be conducted remotely, allowing flexibility for experts based abroad. Experts will contribute to the design and implementation of targeted actions that respond to institutional needs, support reform processes, and align with the national priorities defined as defined in the previous section.

The specific tasks of the legal experts consultants/fellows will include:

• Conducting a review and assessment on the EU priorities and EU Acquis and all relevant national legislation, to identify the gaps of national legislation with the EU Acquis.
• Advising the Line Ministries on the necessary steps to be taken to align the national legislation with the EU Acquis.
• Drafting the necessary legal framework (full legal package) for the acts that will be aligned with EU Acquis, based on the priorities of the National Plan for European Integration.
• Providing on the job training and capacity building to the Line Ministries staff on the EU Acquis and the process of legal alignment including the preparation of the tables of concordance between the proposed draft acts and the relevant EU Acquis.

In particular:

1. Contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of the Albanian priorities in the negotiation process with EU and National Plan on European Integration (NPEI):
   1. Collaborate and coordinate with stakeholders for the fulfilment of the EU benchmarks (interim and closing), in the framework of the negotiation process
   2. Collaborate and coordinate with stakeholders for the development, implementation and monitoring of the NPEI, focusing on measurable milestones for effective implementation.
   3. Monitor NPEI implementation progress against concrete objectives, accuracy and timeliness.
   4. Provide technical assistance and training to improve qualitative monitoring and reporting of the NPEI.
2. Provide targeted training and technical assistance to key departments within the Albanian Public Administration on EU integration processes and especially to enhance their alignment with specific EU Acquis requirements aiming to achieve a measurable improvement within a specified timeframe:
3. Support the coordination of the EU Integration Processes:
   1. Identify key institutions needing coordination support and define clear objectives for improvement.
   2. Contribute on the organization of coordination sessions, and setting of communication channels and provide necessary training for personnel involved.
4. Provide Methodological Support for effective approximation, harmonization and transposition of the EU Acquis:
   1. Offer methodological support and guidance to accelerate legislative approximation.
   2. Assess legislative approximation speed and quality improvements.
5. Enhance Negotiation Capacities for EU Legal Approximation:
   1. Contribute to the Increase of capacities of line ministries and key institutions involved in negotiation processes.
   2. Evaluate negotiation effectiveness and capacity improvements.
6. Contribute to the development of a comprehensive Compliance Assessment framework for aligning with the EU Acquis, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative measures.
   1. Define specific qualitative and quantitative criteria for compliance assessment.
   2. Develop checklist or scoring system for quantitative measurement.
   3. Conduct regular progress reviews and updates as necessary.
7.  Conduct Comparative Analysis of National Laws with EU Member States:
   1. Identify key areas of focus for comparison
   2. Establish quantitative measures for assessing compliance, such as the number of laws aligned with EU directives and their level of implementation.
   3. Develop a scoring system to measure the degree of alignment between national laws and EU Member States” laws.
9. Contribute to the translation of EU legislation into Albanian, ensuring accuracy and consistency, and contribute to its harmonization with national laws through collaboration with stakeholders, drafting legal amendments and monitoring implementation.

•     timeliness,

•     responsibility,

•     initiative,

•     communication,

•     quality of products delivered,

•     satisfactory completion of tasks indicated in this ToR,

•     quality of provided report.