Saturday, November 19, 2022

On November 18-19, 2022, module 8 of the School for Consumer Protection and European Integration took place, with the main theme "Consumer rights within traditional and online media". The training is a component of the project "From Information to Action - Empowering Organizations on Consumer Protection", which is being implemented by the European Movement in Albania in cooperation with the Academy of Political Studies and the Alert Center, with the financial support of the European Union within the IPA funds. 2017.

The first day's sessions addressed the importance of educating and informing the public as part of the obligations of public institutions to ensure appropriate consumer awareness (Chapter 28 & Chapter 10). The invited expert, Mrs. Jonida Boçi, general deputy director of ISUV, presented ISUV's tasks in increasing consumer information and awareness, as well as the challenges for improving public information, related to the process of EU membership negotiations. The second session of the module focused on explaining the ALERT mechanism and the challenges for increasing cooperation between different actors for food security.
The second day of the module addressed the right to information through a consumer protection and public health approach. The consumer's rights to obtain information from public institutions, as well as the challenges to create appropriate transparency in the public and private sector, were presented by Mrs. Elona Hoxhaj, Director of the General Directorate for the Right to Information, Commissioner for the Right to Information. The discussion took place during the public consultation period for the improvement of the law "On the right to information" and aroused the interest of the actors to include further recommendations that could improve this law.

Awareness and the role of civil society in food security was the focus of the fifth training session. The invited expert addressed the role of other actors for consumer education, promoting the engagement of organizations and citizens to ensure consumer education, offering European and national practices of complaining and pursuing cases.

The experience of the Alert center, as the only window dedicated to informing the public, was also shared as part of the training by the director of the center, Mr. Granit Sokolaj. The presentation of the concrete issues addressed served to explain the importance of the media as an ally to create the right cooperation with the consumer as well as recommendations for improving the contact between institutions, private business and the media to create a proper public information.