Prime Minister Edi Rama presented the Commander General of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, General of the Army Corps Giuseppe Zafarana, with the Prime Minister’s Grand Star of Public Gratitude Medal during a ceremony at the Maps Hall at the government seat on Wednesday.

* * *

Prime Minister Edi Rama: We have come together today for a special celebration of a special man. A general, but most importantly, a friend and one of the most precious representatives of a country, which is probably the closest one spiritually, and undoubtedly one of Albania’s most benevolent and friendly countries, Italy!

General Zafarana is one of the Italian state envoys that have contributed in honour of their uniforms, but have also witnessed a three-decade long history of shared efforts and an ever stronger friendship. Moreover, General Zafarana is a dignified representative of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, a highly respected and evaluated force, especially for Albania and Albanians for the precious assistance this force has contributed to this important phase of our history.

The general has provided a valuable contribution to a front that brings together many people from both sides of the border and, at the same time, in his capacity as Commander of the Guardia di Finanza he has been also leading an entire effort to directly assist in patrolling the Albanian coast and positively impact our endeavour against the cannabis cultivation through the aerial reconnaissance missions and make sure that our continued results are more and more significant and make sure that we are never alone as we face many difficulties.

We are very honoured to host the general here, but I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation to all Italian officers, who have served in this country and through their service in this country have provided a precious contribution to this country.

The cooperation between Albania and Italy is definitely much broader, more complex and more horizontal in all areas, but it remains a very close, indispensable and strategic cooperation in this area in particular.

In a very tough year that now seems to be a thing of the past, but which has actually been part of our history, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Rome in 1997 to provide expertise, consultation and assistance to the Albanian State Police reform. And thanks to that agreement, 69 Italian police officers, 46 of whom Guardia di Finanza’s officers, were stationed in Albania and they committed to leading precisely this consulting and assisting process to prepare, train and adapt the Albanian Border Police officers with an extremely difficult reality in the wake of the terrible crisis in 1997.

The truth is that the Italian mission, deployed from Tirana to Durres and Vlora, not only delivered on their targets, but also laid the foundations of a cooperation that kept expanding, strengthening and becoming important in the years ahead, becoming also more sophisticated and delivering more and more significant results.

If we look back to that time, the mission’s results absolutely spectacular, the seizure of vessels, the quantities of smuggled goods, narcotics, weapons, speak for themselves about how this mission, in cooperation with the Albanian police, met its targets and establishment of a Sazan-based special unit was established based on such results. Although being small in numbers, this unit provided extraordinary assistance in terms of results.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the time when the cooperative moment between Italy’s Guardia di Finanza and Albania’s police started to yield its operational results.

40 000 hours of patrol, 300 vessels, hundreds of metric tonnes of sequestered narcotics and around 1000 individuals have been brought before justice.

We are fortunate and it is an honour for us to say that 1 500 Guardia di Finanza officers provide a direct contribution to this history and if Albania has a different image now and a completely different position today, it has the opportunity to aspire for completely different things, dedicated both to our collaborations and to our partners and there is no doubt that the Guardia di Finanza has an irreplaceable place in this success story.

Most recently Albania launched another EU project, with the Guardia di Finanza once again directly supporting and assisting the EU4LEA mission in the integrated border management of the Republic of Albania.

We are also aware that what Italy has delivered goes beyond concrete operations, beyond concrete outcomes and concrete long list of accomplishments and it would take a long winter night to name them all, because what matters most is the culture of work, the culture of institutions, the culture of cooperation and the culture of concrete results that Italian friends and partners have helped us build step by step in our institutions, our law enforcement agencies.

I will conclude my remarks by quoting the great Italian Giovanni Falcone, who used to say: “We can always do something and this is a maxim that needs to be engraved on the chair of every magistrate and every policeman.” And if we are to refer to the Guardia di Finanza,  if we are to refer to the General and all his colleagues, if we are to refer to all the Guardia di Finanza officers, I am convinced that Giovanni Falcone would have been prod of the work, activity and these officers’ respect for their uniform, the Italian national flag, as well as for the flag of eternal Albanian-Italian friendship.

General of the Army Corps Giuseppe Zafarana: Mr. Prime Minister,

Honorable authorities, and distinguished guests,

On behalf of the Guardia di Finanza, as well as on my own behalf, I would first of all like to cordially greet you and express my deepest gratitude for the warm hospitality, as well as for awarding the prestigious Grand Star of Public Gratitude Medal.

In my capacity as the Commander General of the Guardia di Finanza, I will hold this award with all the honors it deserves So, in my capacity as the Commander General, and above all as an Italian citizen, it is a great honor for me to receive from Mr. Edi Rama – whom I would like to  thank for the attention he paid to me – this important medal that, as I said, I will hold with pride and with all the due respect it deserves. Today’s ceremony, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Maritime Border Unit, in addition to proof of cooperation and friendship between the Guardia di Finanza and the Albanian police, for me represents also to renew and confirm the commitment of the Guardia di Finanza officers in joint activities with local authorities.

 Allow me to conclude my speech by once again expressing both my own and the Guardia di Finanza’s feelings of gratitude, hoping that we will agree on other ways to strengthen the excellent existing ties in the future.

Thank you Mr. Prime Minister, thank you Albania!