Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the elections in Albania of April 2021 following the observations made at the Council of Europe on 21 June 2021.

UK policy on Albania aims to help the country to become a strong, prosperous, mature democracy, better able to tackle the challenges it faces including the threat from Serious and Organised Crime. Our policy supports the wider objectives set out in the Government's Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy published in March 2021. The UK continues to work closely with the international community, including the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR), in support of these aims. We continue to encourage Albania to engage constructively to further improve the country's electoral practices in line with recommendations from the CoE and ODIHR.