THE EU recently completed a 27-month programme aimed at helping Albania fight money laundering, AENews reported. The cost of the project is €1.3 million, which was provided by the European Commission. The Commission said that the project has strengthened the capacities of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Albania to gather, process and disseminate information on suspicious currency transactions, to co-operate with other Albanian institutions, including banks and other law enforcement authorities and to further its international co-operation in the fight against money laundering. Head of the Commissions delegation to Tirana, Ambassador Helmuth Lohan, indicated satisfaction that the project has contributed to modernizing and enhancing the capacities of Albanian institutions to prevent money laundering. The German Federal Police also contributed operational know-how to Albanian authorities as part of a twinning arrangement.