Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg Scientific Award presentation ceremony at the Academy of Science:

I sincerely appreciate the kind invitation to attend this ceremonial moment to present the science award for the best work and best foreign and Albanian author in the field of researches on Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, exactly on the ‘the nation-wide Skanderbeg Year’ which we have named after him.

Ernest Koliqi once had written that Europe was amazed at the death-or-glory feats of the Albanian leader. His name, surrounded by a mystical aureole, was passed down from country to country.

The today’s event truly deserves to be regarded with highest appreciation and there is much to be grateful not only to those who hosted it, but, above all, to the authors who devoted time, energy and commitment to Skanderbeg’s figure in a field where the truth is that we lag behind.

I am very pleased that the nation-wide Skanderbeg Year is a kind of quite an occasion to shed light on the works and their authors and send a meaningful signal that despite poverty that has plagued all over the field of scientific activity over the years after the Academy’s degradation there is still hope.

On the other hand, I would like to apologize and ask for your permission so that in no way I become a man who takes advantage of my high-level position to preach the works and their quality, since this neither my task, nor my capability, but I’m availing myself of this opportunity to express a cautious and moderate pleasure at the fact that today we are entering a stage where a light can be seen at the end of the tunnel in terms of reforming the Science Academy.

Despite a long delay for many years, finally, all forces have come together and have been put in motion and I am pleased that today we come across an accomplished job carried out zealously and responsibly by a group led by Professor Gjinushi and set up to propose the Science Academy reform and an alternative platform proposed by Professor Artan Fuga. If we were to remain procedurally strict to the reform text, then I would have to appreciate Professor Artan Fuga for his contribution and unstoppably move forward with the text forwarded by the working group. But what sounds us reasonable is that we should first stop for a second.

We should stop for a second and encourage a comparison between the two alternatives, although one is, so to say, the official version and the other represents the contribution from an Academy member and let it be a result of your discussion since the alternative platform offers things that could be taken into account. The alternative platform is perhaps better than the one proposed by the working group. So this are things, I believe, we are not entitled to comment on. But, I deem it crucially important that nobody prejudices the final result and no divisions are created because one platform had, so to say, the government support and the other was a form of rebellion against it. I think the process and the Academy we want in the future will be the real winners from this approach and I think that, after all, several things are on the right track.

What we need is to consolidate the framework that will then be forwarded the Assembly of Albania to sign the draft-reform into law, which in the case of the Academy of Sciences, more than in any other case, is not imposed from above, but it is an imperative that should be a result of an interaction within the Academy internally and then the government, or the Parliament with the Academy itself.

The fact that the platform proposed by the working group contains much-sought elements for a long time is encouraging and reaching consensus on these elements constitutes a cornerstone of the future of the Academy of Sciences.

I want to raise here a very serious concern which will hopefully be addressed and it will not remain a shout going up in the desert. Albania ranks last among the countries in the region in terms of access to the EU research funding. Serbia has won 90% of the projects it has applied for, Macedonia has won 80% of the projects, whereas Albania only 4.5%.

Funding is the basis without which no work can be done. However, on the other side, access to the available funding is not granted through money, but knowledge. In this aspect, I believe the tomorrow’s Academy should bring about the great change to ensure that Albania develops more and stronger EU research absorbing capacities, which, after all, are unmatched in terms of the amount available with any funding the countries in our region commit directly from the state budget to research and science. It is incomparable, since the EU funding is larger in every case.

Worth of mentioning in this case is something very meaningful in terms of the EU funding in general. The richest countries are those absorbing more funding, not because they have more decision-making power, but because the operate independently. It is not that Germany, or Austria that is a champion, or other countries like these, that by being powerful put their hands into the others’ pockets. What it earmarked for Albania remains there intact. The funding earmarked for Serbia, Macedonia, or Bulgaria’s pocket remains there and imagine that differences are colossal. Why? Because the rich countries know more. Poor countries know less and this is what really makes the difference between the rich and the poor. It is what you actually know and not what you own.

In this aspect, our backwardness, I believe, is related to the devastation that has taken place in Albania’s entire research landscape for years and years, among other things, and I think it can be addressed through a reformed academy and based on some new principles that, I am very pleased with, enjoy a broad consensus among those who contribute directly to the Academy and to the research.

I would like to inform you that within this year, the Ministry of Education will materialize the “Robert Elsie” scholarship and excellence course, which is part of the calendar of the nation-wide Skanderbeg Year, as well as it will contribute towards final publication of the works on the Skanderbeg Year and the acts of the International Conference on Albanian Studies, which, since June, has send an encouraging sign of hope and in a way it deserves to be materialized in various publications and considered as a source of further reference in the coming years.

We will do, not whatever we want, but whatever we could, to assist researchers on their difficult endeavour and path. But, what we really need is that the true scientific researchers take the position they deserve and it is primarily the Academy of Science reform and a completely different functioning of the Academy of Science that can guarantee this in order to serve the genuine scientific researchers, who should then invite young researchers, who can commit and dedicate themselves to the scientific research, given that the research and the scientific researchers are really awarded accordingly.

Thank you again for the invitation and thank you each and every one for the patience.