Albania whether decisions have really been made by the govern­ment, and whether they are being implemented. For example, several public announcements by the Prime Minister suggest that steps are being taken to start rectify­ing uncontrolled hydropower development – for example, that no more plants under 2 MW will be built, 72 the Vjosa will be declared a National Park, 73 and that a number of hy­dropower concessions are being cancelled 74 – but it is often difficult to understand whether these statements are really being acted upon, and publicly available information often suggests that they are not. The European Commission has also commented that: plants over 500 kW, in order to bring down the burden on the public. Given the country’s over-dependence, no further financial support should be offered for hydropower at all. Secondary legislation on prosumers needs to be completed, as well as ensuring access to finance for those interested. A public information campaign could also help to increase up­take, but only if backed by financing and effective legisla­tion. The country needs to drastically improve the transparency of its decision-making on infrastructure projects, from the spa­tial planning and concession issuance stage right through to implementation. Parliamentary documentation, such as minutes of ple­nary sessions and committee meetings, leaves room for greater transparency. In addition, Parliament estab­lished a platform for the consultation of draft laws. Nevertheless, public consultation with civil society and interest groups remained formal and limited in its im­pact. The administration’s performance is still poor when it comes to implementing recommendations from the Ombudsman, showing a decreasing trend in the reporting period. 75 None of this bodes well for the inclusiveness of Albania’s en­ergy transition planning. The draft NECP was submitted for formal recommendations to the Secretariat in July 2021, but civil society groups do not appear to have been involved in the planning prior to this. A strategic environmental assess­ment process was started in late summer 2021, 76 so it is to be hoped that at least some public participation will take place, but it should have been done earlier when changes were easier to incorporate. Draft planning and implementation documents need to be systematically published, with SEAs and EIAs carried out in a timely manner for all relevant plans, programmes and pro­jects respectively, and the results of public consultations genuinely taken into account. Albania also needs to take ac­tion to prevent conflicts of interest for officials involved in decision-making, implementation or enforcement bodies. The development of its NECP must be made more inclusive and meaningful public consultations need to be held while ensuring that all options are still open. This process should also open a debate about how to start a just transition of Al­bania’s oil producing regions, which needs to be led from the ground up. RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS Albania should continue to work on the diversification of re­newable energy sources, increasing energy efficiency, and especially cutting distribution losses. Further efforts should be made to develop secondary legislation, certify more en­ergy auditors and to take action to address energy poverty and increase energy efficiency in households, and to provide financing for this. The government also needs to examine what can be done to reduce the cost of existing contracts for feed-in tariffs and to halt new feed-in tariffs for all renewable energy 72 WWF Adria,‘Prime-minister Edi Rama stated that the government will never again allow projects affecting people and important natu­ral sites’, WWF Adria, 2 August 2019. 73 Igor Todorovi ć ,‘Rama: No chance hydropower plants would be built on Vjosa river’, Balkan Green Energy News, 5 April 2021. 74 Vladimir Spasi ć ,‘Albania to terminate 17 concession contracts for ­hydropower projects’, Balkan Green Energy News, 16 April 2019. 75 European Commission, Albania Enlargement Report, 2021. 76 Energy Community Secretariat, Implementation Report 2021. 19