The
Albanian Secretariat of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI
Albania) in collaboration with Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment,
Columbia Law School – The Earth Institute, conduct a second day training
sessions on good governance of Natural resources, Fiscal Regime, Legislation,
the EITI standard and Social and Environmental aspects of the Extractive
Industry.

The day activity
see the introduction to the petroleum and mining sector – Perrine
Toledano

This
session follow with the give a quick introduction to the petroleum and mining
sector, giving an overview of the market, the players and the value chain

9:15
am – 10:15 am – Introduction to the nexus of extractive industries and
development Paulo Cunha and Jordon Kuschminder

This
session follow with the give an overview on how extractive industries can
constitute a spring-board to development if the right policies are in place.
This session cover concepts like resource curse and Dutch disease and also deal
with the social and environmental safeguards that need to be put in place to
ensure sustainable development

10:15
am – 10:30am – Coffee Break

10:30
am – 12:00pm – Enabling accountability and transparency through EITI – Paulo
Cunha

This
session follow with the present the EITI and the associated theory of change.
EITI was presented as a tool to escape the resource curse talked about in the
previous sessions. The session has been interactive and seeks to understand how
EITI can be a tool for accountability in Albania. Case studies and examples were
provided.

12:00pm-
1:00pm – Lunch

1:00pm
– 2:45pm – Legal framework – theory – Lise Johnson

The
domestic legal and regulatory framework that governs the relationship between a
host-country government and investors can include several pieces of domestic
legislation (including the constitution, the mining or petroleum code, the tax
law) and a series of contracts or licenses between (and among) investors and
the host country, and can cover myriad issues: fiscal terms, competitive bids,
community rights and benefits, health, safety, and environmental obligations,
and disclosure of information, among many others. This session describes the
interaction among these different elements of a domestic legal framework, and
the implications of certain key provisions.

2:45pm
– 3:00pm – Coffee break

3:00pm
– 5:00pm – Legal framework – International law, and overview of available tools
– Lise Johnson This session examines some of the key international legal
frameworks relevant to governments’ abilities to leverage natural resources for
sustainable development. This session also provide an overview of the key tools
that are available on the Internet to assist in design a good legal framework.

Participants
of the training conducted by professors of Columbia University, was representatives
of the Albanian Government, parliamentarians, journalists and members of EITI
Albania Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG).