Speech of Ambassador Luigi Soreca during the certification ceremony for NBI investigators

Dear Chief Special Prosecutor Kraja, dear Ambassador Kim, dear Director Hajnaj, dear NBI investigators.

Today is a day for celebration, which is a good start into the Christmas week.

Today we celebrate the first 28 investigators who have started to work at NBI. And we also celebrate the second anniversary of SPAK.

These have certainly been challenging two years. It is always difficult to establish a new institution. Especially when this institution is at the core of a sensitive area such as the fight against organised and corruption.

The EU has engaged strongly to support the establishment of a strong & independent SPAK, alongside our US partners.

And I am very proud to say that two years down the road we are seeing the first results of these efforts.

A track-record is gradually being built of investigation, prosecution and convictions in high-level criminal cases.  And I am pleased to see SPAK being part of a growing number of EU Joint Investigation Teams with EU Member States and EU Agencies.

Fear is slowly but surely changing side. Fear used to be on the side of prosecutors, judges and investigators, who were under pressure from all sides. Fear is now increasingly on the other side, who start to understand that they may not be protected. That they may have to face justice like any other Albanian citizen breaching the law. 

And SPAK has been a game changer in that respect. It is of course essential to keep focused on building this track-record, especially on high-level corruption cases. We have very recently seen encouraging steps in this direction.

To keep building this track-record, the Special Prosecution Office and the National Bureau of Investigations need to have the best skills and adequate resources at their disposal. And they need to develop among themselves the best possible cooperation. You are a single institution – the SPAK.

It is key that SPAK keeps building strong cooperation with other Albanian law enforcement agencies as well as with their international counterparts.

With the Albanian State Police and the General Prosecution Office, which continue to play an essential role.

And with international partners. In this context, I was very pleased that few weeks ago we could connect SPAK to the Europol SIENA channel. This will be a very important tool to exchange operation information with your counterparts in EU countries and beyond.

Let me come back now to you, the 28 NBI investigators, and to your certification.

You can feel very proud of yourself. Because you have passed a very challenging selection process. Because you have successfully attended a challenging training. And because you are now very important players in the game changer for Albania I was referring to earlier.

I am confident that you have the right skills to deliver on this. And I can ensure you that you have the full support of the EU in delivering on your tasks.

As you know, together with our US partners we are closely monitoring and advising on the development of the National Bureau of Investigation via a dedicated international commission. This important work will continue.

We will also keep supporting capacity building and trainings for SPAK, via tailored EU projects, which will succeed PAMECA and EURALIUs, that I thank for excellent work in these last years. Strong focus will be on developing financial investigations capacities. These skills are essential nowadays to tackle successfully many - if not all - high-level criminal files. 

Let me conclude by stressing that we are looking forward to having soon selected additional 32 NBI investigators – who should then start their training early next year.

In the meantime, congratulations to all of you! All my very best wishes of success and accomplishment in your new job. Your success will be the success of Albania.