Albania Member of European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of Secret Police Files

In the framework of the annual meetings of the institutions of the European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of Secret Police Files, the Authority for information on Former State Security Documents (AIDSSH) participated in the online meeting organized by the Czech Institute for Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
Network meetings, organized in turn by member countries, with invited guests, observers and other interested, presented the work of relevant institutions in their countries, exchanging experiences, facing challenges, undertaking joint initiatives and projects, promoting cooperation and publications, said a press release issued by
AIDSSH on Friday.
The admission of Albania through AIDSSH as full member in the Network was decided unanimously by the members. The representatives of the German BSTU said: “There would not be a better candidate than Albania, which is opening the files of communism and telling the history behind secret documents, cooperating with public and local institutions, academics, groups of interest and associations of human rights by taking advantage of the experience of its counterparts.”
This is an added responsibility for AIDSSH to deal with the recent past,
documentation, research, education and youth interaction activities.
AIDSSH was established in 2017 and it participates in the meetings of the European Network as observer. The Network consists of archival and memory institutions of Eastern Europe, which hold academic and commemorative activities in their respective countries, i.e. the founders Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and beyond, the observer countries, which have archival institutions of the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union.
Albania requested full membership in the Network through the Authority for Information on former State Security Documents at the meeting held in Bratislava, on September 25, 2019. The request was accepted by the member states and the decision has been set to be taken at the next meeting, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was postponed to 2021.The annual activities of the institutions present in the meeting were addressed by their leaders, who approved next the procedural rules of cooperation between the applicant countries and institutions, including the admission of Albania as a member and Ukraine as an observer. /argumentum.al