The Information and Data Protection Commissioner’s Office, within the framework of Law No. 33/2022 “On Open Data and Reuse of Public Sector Information”, with the support of the European Union TAIEX project, has conducted the next training with 38 public authorities in the country. These bodies, in implementation of this law, will have to make their data public on their official websites, but also on the “opendata.gov.al” portal, with the aim of reusing these documents/information by the public, media, organizations, businesses or even scientific researchers.
The purpose of this training was to provide technical and advisory assistance to public sector bodies by international experts, assessing the current legal and institutional framework. During the training, public data, open data standards and formats, types of licenses were identified, practical instructions were provided on preparing an action plan for open data in institutions, and the meaning of the right to reuse public sector information was clarified.
The Director General for the Right to Information, Ms. Elona Hoxhaj, in her opening speech emphasized that the amount of public data in our country has increased significantly and consequently the reuse of this open data serves to increase transparency, accountability of the administration, scientific research and economic development on innovative solutions. Ms. Hoxhaj further added that open data involves a dynamic reorganization of the public sector power, giving up its role as “information holder” and re-dimensioning it into a new role, that of “information provider”.
The TAIEX project experts stated that Albania has a good legal framework, but it needs to improve the quality of data and their updating. This result will also be achieved through periodic trainings. According to experts, open data is a public good, which should be used, while they brought to attention that a distinction should be made between the right to information and open data and their reuse.
The Commissioner’s Office expert, Ms. Alketa Sata, explained to the representatives of public authorities about the phases that this process will go through, emphasizing that the Commissioner’s Office is currently in the orientation and awareness-raising phase and will then move on to the monitoring phase for the implementation of the law.
The Commissioner’s Office has previously collaborated with experts from the “European Union for Good Governance” project. The first part of this project was dedicated to the effective implementation of Law No. 33/2022 “On open data and the reuse of public sector information”. The product of this cooperation was the drafting of the Commentary on open data, which contains detailed information on the provisions of Law No. 33/2022, the powers of the Commissioner’s Office and the obligations of public sector bodies and public enterprises regarding the implementation and enforcement of this law. This Commentary has been published on the official website of the Commissioner’s Office, ( https://shorturl.at/cpAFb ) and has been sent to all public sector bodies and public enterprises for recognition and implementation. The Commentary became part of the discussion at this event by experts and participants.
