Prime Minister Edi Rama’s address to the Assembly:

There are three issues I would like to share with the Assembly and citizens, given the nature of this month’s session, focusing on issues arising after a week-long visit by all MPs on the ground.

First of all, I would like to again reiterate the necessity for the citizens not to refer to the non-official sources of information about the coronavirus and protect themselves first and foremost from the epidemic of disinformation, which, as the World Health Organization notes, poses a serious threat to the whole endeavour to cope with the virus outbreak.

The info epidemic is the outbreak of the fake or fabricated news stories, the craze of clicks on the infected and contagious sources of information, from which the citizens should protect themselves fully aware that all these sources of the info epidemics trigger anxiety, uncertainty and raise totally inadvisable alarms in the circumstances when the epidemics should be faced.

Secondly, the latest official data on the on the mortality of coronavirus infected people shows the rate has fallen to 2.3% from a previous 3% rate. So, 2.3% of the infected people have lost their lives, while all the rest, 97.7% have survived this life-threatening epidemic. This is a very important fact one should keep in mind because, if we were to look at the effects of info epidemic, the word death, the news stories about the dead are exponentially more widely used than the word healing or news about patients who have been cured. But reality is quite different from what one might perceive if we were to enter the information channels without the mask of consciousness.

And since we are speaking about masks, the appeal issued by the World Health Organization and the appeal I want to reiterate here is not to rush to buy masks and waste money on masks. Masks do not protect you from being infected with the virus. Masks are useful to the health personnel, the infected people and the individuals providing care to the infected people. Yet the masks are totally worthless to other people, as, to put it clearly, masks protect them from nothing and the whole hysteria that has gripped entire world to buy and put masks on is merely a waste of money that would fill the coffers of the mask producers and sellers.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health of Albania has earmarked 1 million dollars plus to tackle all the problems and the Ministry of Health has supplied and distributed 1.2 million masks to the citizens, although these masks are likely to become just relics and a reminder that – although no cases of the disease have been confirmed to date – a sort of epidemics called coronavirus passed through here once.

As to the daily and the continued treatment of this problematic by the Ministry of Health and the entire health system that has become available to deal with this potential health threat, 31 tests performed on individuals showing suspicious symptoms, similar to the coronavirus symptoms, have tested negative. So, not a single coronavirus infection case has been detected so far. Meanwhile, the National Emergency Centre has made available a single emergency number, 127, with doctors and nurses, and not call center operators, receiving and processing some 1400 calls a day, carrying our verifications on every case when the explanations provided by the callers raise doubts and out of 400 verifications it turns out that nobody is infected by the coronavirus.

As many as 16,000 health checks have been performed at the border crossings. The entire health system is working and putting in place cautionary measures to prevent the virus spread and on alert to detect the first case that has yet to emerge. And to conclude this issue, I emphasize that it is very important that all citizens are not alarmed by the info-epidemic. Stay away from unofficial news and information and wear a mask on your consciousness in order to cope with the outcome of aimless clicks on online media websites that speak about end of the world only. The end of the world is not near and the coronavirus does not threaten to bring the end of the world, on the contrary, one should bear in mind that the current statistics on people who have unfortunately lost their lives show that coronavirus infects mainly the elderly in a very life-threatening way, while children and healthy adults have successfully recovered.

The second issue I want to raise as an important information, I think, is that we have set up a group to engage more than 300 vocational school students in the third and fourth year who will attend a training program in order to offer them the opportunity to involve in the reconstruction process, helping them also to gain direct working experience in the construction sites. In the coming days, the Minister of State for Reconstruction will issue on the information and transparency-dedicated website on reconstruction an open call to all individuals with skills and a background in all construction processes and who wish to take up a job in construction sector. Though it may sound absurd, the need for work and skilled workers is one of the biggest challenges of this process. The rebuilding process will create many jobs and these jobs require employees with a certain qualification in all construction processes. Which means that, on the one hand, we are prepared to provide training for all those needing additional training, on the other hand we are challenged by the fact that, while there are many complaints about “no jobs,” there are indeed many jobs and many other jobs will be created through this process, but these job position remain vacant because those who complain and want mainly government jobs, refuse to take up these jobs, while we need skilled workers.

I would like to inform that the government will force the construction companies to set an average salary of 420 euros for every worker who will take part in the rebuilding process. We will negotiate with companies and we will agree to sit and talk with them only when a lower wage is justified and we will never accept that builders pay the today’s minimum salary to their workers. The salary for all those involved in the rebuilding process will be set by the government and it will be around the average wage in the Republic of Albania today, including the necessary social insurance contributions.

But, thanks to the law the Parliament has passed, we will open borders to foreign workers. Borders have been open, but there have been terrible bureaucratic procedures, but now we will offer companies the opportunity to recruit foreign workers to come to Albania if necessary and if jobs positions are not taken up by local employees.

This is a major challenge for the whole region. This is a big challenge for all of Eastern Europe, but despite this we have the opportunity that with the created advantage of entirely simplified procedure allowing companies to recruit foreign workers within seven days only, all sectors of the country’s economy will be provided the opportunity to meet their needs for skilled workers.

The vacant job positions in the public administration have been made available to the best performing students or those with previous successful experiences and therefore finding pathways to take a government job through the support from a political party, an influential individual and friends, or thanks to the thick wallet are increasingly narrowing and heading towards complete closure. As we have already seen following the adoption of the Pact for the University, the job positions in the public administration have been made available to the excellent students and graduates. Hundreds of them were employed last year. The same will happen this year as a new open call is about to be issued and the best performing students with a grade point average of 9 to 10 will be the ones who will have the public administration’s door open and will be entitled to compete for a job position in the administration.

Of course, through this process we are seeking not just to repair damages and heal the earthquake wounds, but also make sure that the country’s economy makes a significant leap forward. We now have all practical conditions to aim for this, as we have built a solid basis over these years and we have the important breathing space created by the extraordinary success of the Donors’ Conference and we will soon forward the new Economic Plan for the country in a bid to address all sleeping potential and, on the other hand, turn the rebuilding program into the gravity of an economic and social boom in the true sense of this word through more investment and significant revenue growth.

In this respect, the General Tax and Penal Amnesty, which I hope will gain the Parliament’s full support is actually a must to offer every Albanian citizen, who have been working hard abroad or in the country over the past 30 years, the opportunity to formalize their work-generated income that for many reasons they have failed to declare, finally allowing them to deposit their money in the country’s banks.

The same goes over the formalization of all their assets. We know quite well that there are many uniformalised assets or assets that have been not declared under the name of their true owners. The true owners will be provided the opportunity to show themselves up and formalize their assets if they do not want to see their assets becoming a target of the law on confiscation criminal assets once the Amnesty terminates. They will be then treated equally like the criminal assets. It is impossible for the country to bear the 30-year burden of criminal assets.

We have addressed this issue and we have waged a battle on this front. Luckily enough, the new justice bodies have been involved in this process and namely the Special Prosecution Office (SPAK) is totally active and SPAK prosecutors are increasingly showing they are in the right direction. All sequestration files are being handled by SPAK and the initial Special Court rulings are encouraging, making sure that nobody will escape the Power of Law Operation (PLO) and justice regarding the illegally acquired assets and the proceeds of crime. But, naturally, it has also created uncertainty, which is unfounded, because the PLO’s objective is nobody else, but individuals who have committed crime as stipulated by law. However, all those worried for having illegally acquired money and undeclared assets are concerned for a good reason. In order for this uncertainty to ease and offer the right to formalization of every work-generate penny of all Albanian migrants, who, when crossing the border to enter another world for first time in their lives were not welcomed with open arms and were forced to do all kinds of jobs to provide for themselves and their families. These are honest savings to which we will clear the way to be deposited in banks, excluding them from checks of any kind and nature, as it will be the case after the amnesty.

Of course, the general amnesty will categorically include individuals whose assets are illegally acquired. The general amnesty will be both a tax and penal pardon that will be adopted with 84 votes in parliament, so that nobody will stand a chance of returning the law on political grounds, but no amnesty will be granted for all illegally acquired financial assets and proceeds of crime. The same goes over the wealth and money of politicians, judges, prosecutors, state police officers and all elected and appointed officials and their family members, who are subject to the declaration of wealth and assets. No amnesty will be granted to this category of individuals who are subject to the declaration of wealth and their wealth cannot be legalized if illegally acquired.

In order to provide an ultimate answer to the constant question why the Power of Law Operation is dealing with criminals and not the politicians, why the Operation is dealing with criminals and not judges and prosecutors, I would like to explain the object of the PLO’s offensive are individuals who have already stood a trial previously and have been once found guilty and sentenced by the court. While politicians, judges or prosecutors are subject to the law on declaration of wealth for many years now and it is up to the justice institutions to look into the source of the wealth of politicians and judges.

At the same time, I believe that sooner rather than later, SPAK will move on to the next stage already underway with the judicial reform, where many judges and prosecutors have been removed from the justice system through the vetting process, because their wealth is not justified, and who will now be summoned by the special prosecutors just like the German Bundestag form stipulates, just like the requirements from the European Commission will stipulate that judges and prosecutors will no longer be held accountable in front of the vetting commission, but in front of justice to reveal source of their wealth that turned out to be illegally acquired during the vetting process. Therefore, let’s not confuse matters. The Power of Law Operation is a police operation and in no democratic country the State Police embark on operations against the politicians, or judges and prosecutors who have never convicted previously.

The Power of Law Operation targets all former convicts who have been found guilty by the justice institutions and not by Parliament, neither by political parties, nor by the people’s prosecutors appearing at podiums of the press conferences. I believe this helps to clarify that none of these stages and actions rule out each other, i.e. the PLO’s activity focuses on clear cutting between the work-generated income and the illicitly acquired money, be it declared or non-declared, just like it might be the case of the savings made by emigrants, who for 1001 reasons have been forced to work in the black market labour in the countries they have emigrated, or just like it is the case of wealth of many, if not all, small and big entrepreneurs here in Albania, who haven’t declared in full their income. However, this is work-generated income and as such it should be formalized by offering the amnesty opportunity of course in exchange of a favourable or bank fee rate, just like it is the case with any tax amnesty granted in the countries all over the planet. This accumulated fee or tax will then be used to support investment projects in best interest of the citizens. However, a deadline will be set for the amnesty and once this deadline expires, every asset and every single penny outside the formalized system will be considered as illegally acquired. The state will no longer offer tolerance.

And it should be clear to everyone that we are preparing to usher in another stage that has to do with the country’s need, as well as to the alignment with the European control system that all assets and income earned by Albanian nationals while abroad will be registered and declared here in Albania and the Albanian state will be obliged, in coordination with others, develop capacities to check income and assets of its citizens abroad. So, this is an appeal extended first and foremost to all wealthy businessmen who have their assets abroad to declare these assets in order to benefit from the tax amnesty and refrain from trying making joke of it as it may cost them dearly once the amnesty expires. The amnesty will be forwarded to Parliament soon after a consultation process with all interest groups, which won’t take a long time, and it will be approved by Parliament to become part of this process of efforts for a new and significant economic and social development of the country.

Similar measures will follow in the future, but what I would like to tell everyone is that these measures, the general tax and penal pardon should be seen as a bipartisan measure that should not divide the political parties, should not divide the individuals who represent people, because this is in best interest of all citizens who live and work abroad and all their families, it is in best interest of  all individuals and families who have made or are making their living by running a business here in Albania. Moreover, this is not in the interest of anyone of us, because if we have things to hide, there is no amnesty to pardon us and sooner rather than later the long-awaited day should come, when things will be clarified to determine who is who in whole this story that we are not all the same. Of course we are not. It would suffice looking at our height. But it is undoubtedly true that we are not all the same, that just like the trees are not the same, the animals are not the same, the people definitely not the same ones and those involved in politics are absolutely not the same. A lot is said about this, but I believe that this separation will take place, just like it is the case with other issues in our country that until a few years ago seemed to have no chance of emerging from the clutches of those who held it hostage for many years and had no chance of escaping the larger financial oligarchy, which was the oligarchy of judges and prosecutors. Now everyone is watching that oligarchy crumbling, but it’s for sure they have seen nothing yet.

Thank you!