Strategies, programmes and other forms of support
Albania has participated in the “Culture programme 2000 – 2006”, “Culture programme 2007-2013”, and “Creative Europe 2014-2020”.
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) to the EU replaced a series of European Union programmes and financial instruments for candidate countries or potential candidate countries, namely PHARE, PHARE CBC, ISPA, SAPARD, and CARDS192, funding various cross-border themes, the environment, tourism, culture heritage, accessibility, etc.
IPA I (2007- 2013) included the Greece-Albania IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 (The total budget of the Programme for the period 2007-2011 was approximately € 18.8 million, with Community assistance amounting to some €15 million. Community assistance was supplemented by about € 3.8 million of national funding from the two participating countries) and the Adriatic IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme 2007-2013 (Total value EUR 298million).
IPA II ( 2014-2020) included the IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme Greece – Albania (about € 45 million) and the IPA Cross-border Co-operation Programme Italy – Albania – Montenegro (Total €25 million for Tourism and Culture Heritage).
In IPA III (2021–2027), 14.2 billion euro of pre-accession financial assistance in favour of the Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkey will be allocated to support the conducting of necessary political, institutional, legal, administrative, social and economic reforms in order to comply with EU values and to progressively align themselves with EU rules, standards, policies and practices193. Starting retroactively from 1 January 2021, support will be divided according to thematic priorities rather than into country envelopes.
In 2020, following a devastating earthquake months earlier, The European Union hosted in Brussels the donors’ conference Together4Albania with a record pledge of EUR 1.15 billion. The European Commission donated 115 million euros in direct grants divided between EU4Culture with 40 million euros for rehabilitating culture and heritage as well as EU4Schools with 75 million euros for the repair and reconstruction of schools over the next four years in coordination and collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and other stakeholders.
The Ministry of Culture in cooperation with Albanian American Development Foundation undertook and finalized the project in 2019 for e-ticketing at 107 cultural heritage institutions in Albania and the platform for their promotion and online ticket sales. The AADF has actively financed and supported other cultural-economic projects as well.
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