Speech of Prime Minister Rama at the meeting with mayors who won the local elections of 21 June:

Thank you for being here!

First of all I wish you once again much success and good luck.

I have already given my best wishes to most of you, and I take this opportunity to congratulate specifically the Mayor of Përmet and the Mayor of Dropull, who are here present. I have not had the opportunity to congratulate them before. Congratulations and much success!

I am sorry that the remaining part has not gone beyond that famous campaign message, “I am afraid that they see me”. I am also sorry because this is a particularly important meeting and failure of coming of mayors who had confirmed or refused to confirm is a direct detriment to their work and to service to the community, because we are in exceptional conditions.

We are not in normal conditions, because work begins with a heavy burden of responsibility and with the necessity to harmonize a number of steps in view of an extremely important and not easy transition from the old administrative units to the 61 new units.

A thorough material has been prepared for all mayors by the Minister of Local Affairs and the Agency for the Implementation of the Territorial Administrative Reform operating under the law, here in the Council of Ministers. This material is a practical guide for all legal and administrative aspects to be considered in this transition process with the objective of consolidating the new administrative units.

It is an extraordinary challenge that we have together. First of all, this is a challenge of each and every one of you that were elected on 21 June, and it is without the slightest doubt our challenge as a government to be with you in dealing with a large number of problems that require a clear vision, a clear program, a determined leadership at the local level and, unquestionably, full support of the government.

I want to emphasize from the outset that the government will support without reservation municipalities and mayors across the country, who will be willing to cooperate with the government.

We will not ask for cooperation, because we believe that every one of those elected on June 21 has the right of choice to either aim at cooperating with the government, or to reject it. But, we will be here, ready to cooperate with everyone who would want this cooperation, and we will support without any political and partisan difference the local elected of the Republic of Albania who are willing to cooperate with us.

In conclusion of this introduction, I express once again regret for the local elected of the Democratic Party who are not here, and I wish them to come out as soon as possible of the suffocating shell of the blind policy of their party, and to be as soon as possible at the service of the communities, and understand as soon as possible that they are the heads of the entire community, of all voters, of all families in every community, regardless of who the voters voted and regardless of the geographical position of the families that make up their communities.

We do not divide municipalities in red and blue. For us all municipalities are new economic units of social and urban development, in addition to being units of the economic growth of the Republic of Albania.

Harmonization of our operations is a prerequisite for success.

I am convinced that the start of the implementation of the Territorial Administrative Reform, after this reform was sealed by the sovereign people on June 21, is the great challenge of our political life, because it is directly connected with a historic process of the transformation of the Albanian state. This process of a thoroughly reorganization of the state has never occurred before. It is a challenge that requires a great political and civic passion in ruling municipalities; it requires a clear vision aas well as administrations able to implement the vision, and obviously it requires a courageous and innovative leadership.

Many of the mayors present here have been reelected. I believe that to them also it is quite clear that what begins after June 21 is something quite different from what has continued until June 21. It is a very complex, multi-dimensional and very complicated challenge. We are not anymore in the stage of municipalities as municipal entities, municipal works and municipal services, but we are in a new stage of municipal units as instruments of economic, social and urban development. Basically, we are in the conditions where the notion of local government really makes sense. I believe that you are aware of the approach of the government and of the ruling majority to this process that not only is not over, but it has just started with a new administrative map, because now the challenge is a real decentralization in order to strengthen local governance as entity and accountability.

We want to move quickly ahead with decentralization, as there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in a specific and appropriate way in order to avoid the waste of time and money while being at a standstill.

Starting with the water.

Our national system of water supply is a disaster to which we want to put an end in close collaboration with municipalities. Water reform will be a radical reform that, among other things, will aim and succeed at directly passing competence of good administration of drinking water, the good administration of water for irrigation, and at the same time the good administration of purification systems of water and water drainage, directly to the new mayors and heads of municipalities.

This requires a series of measures for which we are prepared and which we will implement according to a clear schedule of interaction with you, but the essence is that each municipality will become the sole owner of its system of drinking water supply to guarantee water for irrigation, and then the other part that has to do with water purification and drainage. It is an extremely vital reform that actually should separate us from an African period of dealing with this major national asset and with the unmatched abuse of this great value for the life and finances of each local unit.

Waste;

We know very well what we inherited here, but also are very aware that it is up to municipalities to directly undertake the management of such delicate and backward sector in our country, which is the sector of collection and processing of waste.

Transport;

This is another Gordian knot that must be unloosed as soon as possible to create the conditions for citizens to have in every new municipality a dignified urban transport, whether they live in the center of the municipality or in the countryside.

We are studying the direct inclusion of new municipalities in matters of public order. We think that it is about time for a bold reform that will lead into the merging of municipal police forces, in addition to giving mayors the right to issue administrative orders to State Police structures. Administrative orders dealing with order, with tranquility, with circulation and with all those aspects for which the mayor is elected and for which the municipality will respond to citizens. It is actually a very radical reform, but we believe that it is necessary for giving mayors the power they have not had so far in view of the need to ensure order, in view of the need to make their policies on movement, in view of the need to be side by side the government in order to definitely curb illegal constructions, and to punish any effort that undermines infrastructure in each municipality.

Every road damage, every damage to the lighting systems, any impairment in everything that has been done with hard work and money must be addressed immediately. Nobody should never dare anymore to abuse common wealth, from infrastructure to trees. For this reason we believe that institutional legal interaction between the mayors and the State Police is now a necessity.

Of course, we will have open discussions for this reform. We will listen very carefully to the opinions of all of you, especially of those who have experience and have not been elected for the first time, in order to address exactly the problems, find appropriate solutions and stop wasting time.

In addition, we want to give municipalities a new opportunity to have a new relation with property and to become mechanisms that absorb direct investments in the territories administered by them, both foreign and domestic investments, and to give them many more rights than they have today on property administration and on the possibility to give entrepreneurs an opportunity that they have not been offered so far.

We want municipalities’ doors to be opened even for entrepreneurs in every field, from infrastructure to agriculture, so that mayors will not shrug their shoulders as they have been doing so far and tell entrepreneurs to go to Tirana and look for solutions because they can do nothing. This will definitely be a new added opportunity of the municipalities elected on 21 June.

Also, we want to build a new system that allows us a more active interaction in relation to ownership certificates in the countryside, and gives new mayors and municipalities more responsibility, but also the necessary instruments in order to end together and in a shorter time the problem of lack of ownership certificates in the countryside that has been going on for over 20 years.

We will discuss also about this together, as we will for all the rest, in order to address this problem in the most proper way and to not let you justify yourselves in front of people for what has not been done so far due to your administrative powerlessness.

We are also working on the cadaster, because we believe it is necessary for the new local units to have an interaction and a new opportunity related to property in general and to everything that has to do with the territory. Of course, we will not do in any case any Albanian-style invention, but we will look at the best practices. We want our municipalities to be at the same time government allies in the fight against the endless delays and corruption in mortgages. It’s a problem of over 20 years, which we believe cannot be solved without a direct participation of municipalities in this process. Of course, this is about shared responsibility, but at the same time about interaction.

On the other hand, we think that the financial aspect is very important, and I left it for last not for its importance, but in order to put a strong emphasis on it.

Afterwards we will also discuss on how to look at our fiscal system as a common system. Will we look at the opportunity to start the practice of shared taxes, so that new municipalities can have access to income, because they have not had any access so far, even though they have given a direct contribution.

Undoubtedly, these are vital issues that have not been addressed in over 20 years. It is said that we have made decentralization, but we have not. In fact we have done fragmentation and destruction. This is the truth. The fact that we have inherited today such a criminal situation regarding property, such a confusing and complicated situation regarding property titles, such a dramatic situation regarding the water supply system, purification systems and transport services and so on, up to an unprecedented situation of barbarity in the civilized world, to forests, pastures, rivers, beaches and so on, is nothing more but the screaming evidence of the fact that in Albania rather than decentralization we have made destruction.

Things could go worse. Of course, things can go even worse, if the newly created process is not developed with courage and strength; with the strength of the conviction that, in order to have a modern state and a state that knows how to defend itself and to create conditions for all individuals and interest groups to develop themselves, we need a completely different level of local government which is guaranteed only by means of a real decentralization.

Part of this challenge is the necessity for each of you to realize that there is no chance of being successful by taking more responsibility, if the administrative capacity to bear these responsibilities is not guaranteed. Therefore, my appeal is that you should be extremely determined and extremely attentive to build administrations that respond to this challenge. Otherwise, this new weight can become a suffocating burden, not just for you but for all of Albania and our common future.

On the other side, there are a number of urgent issues that need to be addressed, ranging from the fact that today no municipality has any spatial development instrument anymore, since every regulatory plan have been invalidated and every new unit should have a new development document. We are prepared to assist you and we definitely need interaction, in order not to waste time, and for you to be able to open the doors of development, based on genuine development documents.

The agency we have here in the Prime Minister’s Office, established by law, has the specific task to serve in this process, both by assisting you technically and by continually keeping the bridge of communication and cooperation with the government. Tasks have been divided within the agency, as we you will see in the Practical Guide made available to you. Each municipality has its own contact person within the agency who has the duty to ensure, on behalf of the agency and of the Albanian government, exchange of information and that none of you will lack the necessary technical assistance whenever it is required.

I want to repeat and conclude with what I started, that we will not ask anyone for cooperation, we will not go after anyone who does not want to cooperate and who might consider the role of the mayor as a political mission of their own party. We will cooperate with anyone, without any prejudice, but with the condition that cooperation is based on the principle of reciprocity and that we serve jointly communities that chose you.

We do not run away from any responsibility and will not leave anyone behind, but anyone who will take the route of making their community hostage because of political unreasonableness will be kept accountable before their own community. We will be very transparent with all communities. We will make it very clear to everyone what communities can do and what we can do, what we can do today and what we can do tomorrow, what we can do in the medium term and what we can do within four years. But, also, we will be transparent every time we are in front of the reason of political unreasonableness.

I am saying this because we have no time to watse and we will not waste time at any time and for any reason, by entering political trenches and making politics with the needs of communities.

Our policy in relation to June 21 is what we are committed to have, serve all communities without distinction and give municipalities new opportunities to be units of economic development, to be units of social development unit and to be units of urban development. This is a common challenge. This is a historic challenge and we are ready to face it. But, of course, not without you, and obviously by strongly supporting you, without entering into the merits of your full autonomy to take decisions that you will consider more reasonable. Then, the people of every community will judge you and will judge us too.

Thank you!