In the field of fighting corruption and economic crime, the Horizontal Facility II programme has further supported the local authorities and related actors in the field, including measures to address the transparency of funding of political parties, asset declaration systems, national risk assessments and capacity development of financial intelligence units.

In Albania, the programme is now supporting the operationalisation of the new electronic system on assets declaration through capacity building for 170 representatives from related public institutions. They will facilitate the process of assets declarations by elected representatives and public officials.  Established with the support of the Horizontal Facility II programme, it constitutes an important step forward to prevent and fight corruption among public officials in Albania.

In addition, in co-operation with the Albanian School for Political Studies, the high level conference on “Campaign finance, (mis)use of public administration resources and de-criminalisation: Challenges encountered in the 25 April elections and recommendations” was organised in Tirana bringing together representatives of the main political parties, state institutions, experts and civil society actors. They discussed strengthening the legal framework for electoral campaign financing and how to advance the new electoral reform agenda in Albania. The main European standards concerning the misuse of state resources and financing of electoral campaigns were shared and discussed with the participants including public funding allocation criteria, spending restrictions, candidate funding as well as the audit of election campaign finances.

In Montenegro, through the Horizontal Facility II programme, the EU and Council of Europe are encouraging Montenegrin authorities to reinforce the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. The conference on “Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system in Montenegro: obstacles to the effective system and the way forward”, organised in Podgorica provided a platform to discuss the effectiveness of the Montenegrin AML/CFT system, with the view to encourage rapid action to overcome the existing gaps in the legal, institutional and operational framework. The participants agreed that effectiveness of the mechanisms for prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CFT), and establishing an effective track record of investigation, seizure and confiscation of criminal proceeds are some of the main challenges that Montenegro is facing on its European path.