Albania’s data protection law, applicable both to the private and public sectors, dates back to 2008. Amendments are now being prepared to introduce GDPR-style provisions.

Albania is a member of the Council of Europe, and has ratified the Council of Europe Convention 108, which entered into force in Albania on 1st June 2005(1). “As regards the ratification of Convention 108+, we are ultimately committed to making all possible efforts in this respect,” Besnik Dervishi, Albania’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner told PL&B in an interview.

“Both Convention 108+ and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are key aspects in the short-term strategy of the Commissioner’s activity.” Albania has applied for technical assistance with the European Commission’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), in order to receive assistance to draft or amend the current law, and to integrate all the innovations contained in the GDPR. We have anticipated, in our National Plan for European Integration, the adoption of the new aligned law in 2020; hence we expect to complete the process in the next couple of months, Dervishi said.