-Which are the issues you focused on during this cabinet meeting?

We held the traditional year-end cabinet meeting and, as you already know, at the end of each parliamentary session, ahead of the summer recess and at the end of the year, we conduct a lengthy review, taking stock of entire performance and activities of each ministry, focusing on achievements, problems and priorities for the coming period.

The meeting focused largely on the rebuilding program. A solid plan to start the rebuilding process is already in place. Our goal is to make sure that everything is underway by Spring and make sure that majority of those who have lost their private homes due to earthquake are all housed in new homes within first six months of next year. Meanwhile, those who will be housed in the new residential neighbourhoods due to be built under the reconstruction program will continue to stay in rental homes until construction of their new apartments completes.

Of course, we also discussed the seven government priorities until end of term in office. In early January, right after the New Year’s Eve, we will pass the anti-corruption and anti-crime package (KÇK) that has remained pending due to the State of Emergency in the aftermath of the last month’s earthquake and we will also press ahead with the efforts to deliver commitments under the Pact on University. Procedures are already underway and the construction site for the large university campus of Tirana, which will include the former Student City, the new Security Academy and the Academy of Arts, will open in Spring.

As far as the Security Academy is concerned, a significant reconstruction project will also include construction of a forensic science laboratory, which will represent a significant novelty to the work of the State Police and the Security Academy itself, while the whole reconstructed post-Italian compound of the Academy of Arts will be built from scratch.

As for the energy and infrastructure projects, we have already launched procedures for the international Vlora airport. The procedures for the photovoltaic grand park in the area of Divjaka will be also launched soon. Procedures for the construction of the Thumane-Kashar-Rrogozhine highway will also be launched in a very near future. Likewise, intense work is underway and procedures will be launched soon to construct Llogara tunnel, a major public infrastructure project that will be followed by a series of other important road infrastructure projects, including the road linking the coastal villages of Shëngjin and Velipoja.

Regarding the legalization process of the illicit buildings, the government will soon forward to Parliament the new land bill that will ultimately tackle the land ownership issue in all areas where the Law No. 7501 has not functioned and where no land ownership conflicts have been recorded as local residents have agreed to recognize the pre-communist regime boundaries of land parcels, because we have frequently come across the unresolved issue of land ownership over the past 30 years. We will ultimately tackle this issue, as well as the issue of registration of the whole agricultural land according to the Law No. 7501, always respecting the Council of Europe recommendations.

Likewise, we discussed another government priority, the online services. This is a priority that will start materializing in January with the online delivery of a significant number of public services, providing that the citizens will no longer be forced to report at institutions and offices to have the public services delivered. The entire process will now take just an online application, while the public administration will provide and deliver any document, licence, or authorization the citizens are entitled to. The delivery of a large part of these services will begin in January, while the entire process of online public service delivery will complete by June 2020, shutting down all offices tasked with delivering such services and eliminating any corruption practice.

And the last, but not least, the Regional Schengen initiative, which is an important priority.

-Has every cabinet member fulfilled the expectations and are you discontent with anyone for their performance in 2019?

I believe that whoever looks at their work performance and when you look at the accomplishments and the things that have been already done, or are currently in the process, I do really think that serious job has been done and one of the things we should probably consider how to improve is the communication and the information over these accomplishments, because you haven’t placed the deserved attention to many of them, as you rightly deem that there are other far more attracting and more important things for the public to inform. Every day has its own news, every day has its own events, every day has its sensational developments that you are not to blame for, but maybe we can blame ourselves for still not finding the right ways to convey to the public the information on many things that have actually been done and are being done.

-Mr. Prime Minister, should the retired people still hope for an extra year-end pension bonus just one week ahead of the New Year’s Eve?

We will hold the cabinet meeting tomorrow and this issue is on the meeting’s agenda. Of course, what has already happened has made us somehow more prudent, because the idea is not to dispute the government top priorities and of course the retired people represent a social category we never forget, or neglect, but, on the other hand we need to be cautious, as we want to be 100% sure that we can deal with the reconstruction program even on our own and we should also wait for the donors’ conference results and this entire commitment process by our friends and partners to allocate funds, so that we create a clear picture of our share in the overall rebuilding cost. So, we will announce a decision on this matter later, but of course this is a right question about a legitimate concern.