Prime Minister Edi Rama: Today we are here together with EU Commissioner Janez Lenarčič, actually a very well-known name and face for our public as he was one of the first officials to arrive in Albania at those dramatic moments in the wake of the earthquake.
The Commissioner has returned back to Albania, but this time bringing very good news about Albania’s accession to the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism. It is indeed an important step we could actually take based on the reforms we have finalized to transform the National Agency of Civil Emergencies and also based on the work and the efforts we have made to continuously boost the Agency’s logistical, operational and professional capacities.
On the other hand, thanks also to the Commissioner’s direct assistance and commitment, Albania was provided valuable assistance under the EU Mechanism to fight the wild forest fires last year, when firefighting airplanes were sent from countries like the Netherlands or the Czech Republic under this Mechanism.
It is worth highlighting the fact that Europe has set up this mechanism and is strengthening it in order to cope with climate change and the consequences of climate change in our environment. The Mechanism has been set up to protect the environment of each country, the environment of the whole Europe and not only that, but also to jointly respond and cope with severe crises and disasters. The EU’s civil protection mechanism is at the forefront of the effort to ensure a much greater support for Ukraine and provide anything, except weapons support, with aid ranging from food, to medical assistance and medical supplies, and oil.
Albania’s participation in this EU civil protection mechanism – because this is actually a union working under this mechanism – is a very significant step, but it is also a huge relief for us, if we are to take into account our continued needs and vulnerability of our country and our region. In the meantime, this is not just about benefiting, but also providing a contribution to the mechanism, it is not about benefiting from the others’ contribution, but also to provide our albeit modest contribution to this mechanism. It is for this reason that I would like to thank the Commissioner and we deemed it appropriate to announce publicly Albania’s bid to join this union of civil protection after having been signed by the Minister of Defence.
-Mr. Rama, you and the Commissioner said that Albania has now access or is part of this shared mechanism of civil protection and the country will both benefit from assistance, but also provide its contribution to the mechanism. What sort of contribution is Albania supposed to provide, as the Commissioner noted, given that it took for the firefighting planes to fly from Greece to extinguish a fire after raging on the island of Sazan for four days last week. In 2019, you adopted a new legislation on the civil emergencies and the previous directorate was promoted to an agency level. What are Albania’s capacities and will the country benefit by participating in this mechanism?
PM Edi Rama: First of all, I would like to thank you for providing me the opportunity to reiterate the fact that this mechanism has been set up by the EU member states to jointly deal with critical situations in each of the participating states in this mechanism. This means that if a fire breaks and expands for a series of reasons in Albania, then two or three aircrafts are instantly sent under this mechanism. And this is not because of our capacities in this area, but because this is the case with every other country, even with the most powerful countries. I would cite the case of Greece that faces much stronger and intense fires than us, although it is an advanced country both in terms of logistics and the capacities. But the country copes with the forest fires through this mechanism and thanks to the assistance of other participating countries.
On the other hand, what we are doing today is not something we could deliver in the past. This is not a matter of readiness whether we wish to join this union or that it is just now that we thought about joining it. This is a result of the reforms we have delivered. This is also the result of the fact that our Civil Protection Agency meets the standards required to join this mechanism, although it certainly needs to further improve and such improvement is actually taking place out of the public eyes, out of your eyes. The Commissioner will visit today the recently-built centre for the civil emergencies and the coordination centre. So, I believe we have transformed the civil protection structure, although certainly a lot remains to be done. It is for this reason that we go on with our also through the assistance being provided by our Italian partners, with whom, if you can still remember, we signed an agreement and not only that but the compilation of this agreement started on the very first day when the Italian teams arrived to help in the search and rescue operations launched after the devastating earthquake and the agreement now includes also the funding as part of the pledges made at the international donors’ conference, with a good part of the Italy’s pledge earmarked to support modernization of Albania’s civil protection structure.
