Shining a light on political party financing: Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia and Serbia 2011

CRINIS is an assessment tool that evaluates legislative systems and studies the practices of key actors involved in political finance. It aims to identify gaps and shortcomings in political financing systems, with the objective of promoting transparency in political party funding. It is premised on the conviction that transparency is a prerequisite for monitoring money in politics. In the Western Balkans, the assessment carried out in 2010-2011 has focused on the annual, non-electoral funding of political parties in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia and Serbia. All the countries under review have undergone important legislative and institutional changes in political financing in recent years. Further substantial legislative changes were introduced in 2011 in Albania, Croatia and Serbia. These new frameworks incorporate some of the provisions on improvement of supervision and disclosure, but have not been in place long enough to enable full assessment of their implementation. The regional report presents overall cross country findings of the research on regular funding of political parties and provides comparative analysis, as well as recommendations for addressing the identified shortcomings. More detailed information on evaluation of party financing systems is provided in individual country reports.