Senior representatives from the Council of Europe Office in Tirana, public institutions and local authorities met in Korça to discuss progress on the execution of the  European Court judgement about the segregation of Roma and Egyptians pupils in “Naim Frashëri” school (‘X and Others v. Albania’ judgment), which remains pending full execution.

Giulia Re - Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tirana, together with Ina Majko - Deputy Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and Orjana Osmani - Deputy Minister of Education and Sports met Korça’s Mayor Sotiraq Filo and representatives from the Regional Directorate of Pre-University Education (DRAP).

Giulia Re led the discussions on the next steps required to comply with the Court’s ruling, ahead of the Committee of Ministers’ assessment expected by the end of the year. Participants agreed to strengthen monitoring by regularly tracking pupil attendance, dropout trends, enrolment patterns and class composition, in order to identify and prevent any risk of segregation at an early stage.

In parallel, Giulia Re took part in a Parent–Teacher joint activity entitled “Inclusion and Intercultural Co-operation”, organised under the ‘BRIDGE’ Project – Building Respect, Inclusion and Dignity for Groups in Education. The six-month project is supported by a grant from the EU and Council of Europe action on “Advancing the Protection from Discrimination in Albania”, implemented by  Korça Institute for Development of Children (KIDC). It promotes inclusive schools, parental engagement and teacher training in three schools in Korça, including the “Naim Frashëri” school. Through artistic and community-based activities the initiative strengthens co-operation among Roma, Egyptian and non-Roma pupils.

The European Union and the Council of Europe reaffirmed their commitment to working with Albanian institutions and local partners to ensure the effective execution of European Court judgments, with the active involvement of Roma and Egyptian communities and progress tracked against clear deadlines.

This activity is organised in the framework of the Actions Advancing the protection from discrimination in Albania and Improving the protection of the right to property and facilitating execution of ECtHR judgments in Albania (D-REX III), part of the European Union and the Council of Europe joint programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye.