TIRANA – The Speaker of Parliament, Ilir Meta met with the Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Robert Benjamin during his visit to the United States on Tuesday.

In this meeting, the attendees underlined the important contribution that NDI gives to Albania and cooperation between the Albanian Parliament and NDI in important areas, such as transparency and functioning of Parliament, excellent cooperation with the administration of the Parliament and exchange of experiences with legislative services and improvement of their functioning.

Meta underlined the importance that the role and contribution of NDI has in the improvement of the work of Parliament through trainings of the administration and enhancing of legal frame. NDI has played a special role even in the growth of cooperation between parliaments of regional countries.

The Albanian Speaker expressed his estimation for the contribution that NDI has given, especially through the project of Parliament’s transparency for the public, where an important document is the project of the opening of Parliament.

Benjamin assessed the up-to-date cooperation with the Parliament of Albania and with its services and expressed the commitment of the organization he represents to further cooperate and advance with some important processes, such as representation of women in politics and Parliament, the increase of the role of Parliament in the aspect of control that it should have on the executive, code of ethics and behavior of lawmakers and increase of the quality of services, particularly the legislative one, as well as the engagement of youths in politics.

The interlocutors exchanged opinions on the situation in the region, crisis of refugees and need for greater cooperation in the region in order to cope with these challenges.