Prime Minister Edi Rama’s speech at the Assembly’s plenary session:

I believe it is a legitimate sense of pride in our accomplishment, that is the European Commission’s confirmation of the fact that Albania has done its homework regarding all aspects in the process of the country’s integration into the European Union.

The Commission’s Report reached a conclusion, which of course comes as no surprise to us, and, on the other hand, it is the same conclusion reached last year, yet the report is not the same. Which means that in every page of the document one can easily find out that since last year Albania has made progress in all aspects of the path towards EU integration. And, on the other hand, the Report is a reflection on which one could easily see the street opposition’s distortions, deformations and destructive attempts to conjure the image of a different Albania in the eyes of the public opinion and all friends and partners who are willing to listen to our colleagues, who have fled in an unknown direction.

This is certainly not the confirmation of the fact we have never claimed and never pretend that Albania has now overcome all its problems, or that Albania has achieve its ultimate objectives in many areas. This absolutely not the case.

Our ultimate objective focuses on our great national goal of membership of the European Union and the comparison between the reality and the membership moment, which is still too far, while today we are talking about an intermediate stage that should open with the formal launch of the membership negotiations, precisely to address the problems and advance in all directions along path of transforming Albania into a functional state up to the EU member state standards.

As such, I would like to emphasize that the Commission’s Report, the most reliable international report, regarding each detail on the problematics of a country as it moves forward on the path towards EU accession, rejects any claims and attempt to portray the justice reform system as a failure, describe the fight against organized crime and corruption not only as a failure, but also as a completely deformed process in the interest of “the government of crime” and further on, in every respect, the report shows Albanians and the international community an accurate mirror of the today’s reality, including both accomplishments and shortcomings. We are fully aware of the problems, but on the other hand we also take pride in our accomplishments.

Those all who keep playing same old tune by constantly repeating same old non-sense in order to create a false perception among Albanians, I would tell that the report Albania can gauge what it has achieved to date and what still remains to be done.

Justice system is today still far from being the justice we want, yet it is an area where irreversible and fundamental transformations are taking place. The Report hails Albania as an exemplary model in transforming its justice system, a fact clearly also stated by the leading German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, and the German Minister of State for Europe, – a unique reform aimed at cleaning a corrupt system that for three decades has hampered efforts to take the fight against corruption to the European standards.

The Report also offers a clear indication as to what the opposition, the one not being here in the parliament, should do today instead of going on doing what it is doing today.

We remain resolute and strong-willed to stimulate a dialogue process with the opposition, but we are not ready at all to negotiate on the Constitution as fundamental law that obliges us all to respect it in view of the elections belonging to the sovereign people and not to the political parties.

We are totally ready to dialogue with the extra-parliamentary opposition, but we will never negotiate the legitimacy, obligation and this parliament’s continuity, in an obligation stemming from a clear mandate, which makes it impossible for us to tell our voters “sorry, but we are going to give priority to those you didn’t vote for.”

Of course, a space, not only time space but also a space of political subjectivism exists between the European Commission’s unconditional recommendation to open the membership negotiations and the political decision due to be made by the European Council and during this period Albania should do its part, while the political parties should speak with one single voice. Unfortunately, it suffices to see and hear about the opposition’s reaction regarding the Progress Report and the prospect of opening the EU membership talks in order to understand that they are not willing to join us and speak with one voice despite our differences and objections, join their voice with the Albanian citizens, 90% of whom want to see Albania as part of the European Union soon as possible. Quite the contrary, it is clear that there is a determination to continue their destructive efforts and provide more alibies and negative excuses to all of those who for their own reasons object both Europe’s enlargement and opening of the membership negotiations with Albania.

It is unfortunate, it is pointless and unjustifiable in the strategic aspect, because the membership negotiations do not belong to a political party or a government, negotiations do not continue just within a government mandate and this whole process, since Albania took the first step up to date, it has been not the process belonging to a certain party, but it was the process where all parties had their duties and their role. Turning this process into a hostage to the internal political agenda and, moreover, into a hostage to a blind political initiative like that of walking out of parliament to resign from parliamentary mandates to put on the yellow vests and grab Molotov cocktail bombs and fireworks to throw them at the state institutions and then warn you won’t allow citizens to hold and take part in elections is something unprecedented in history of any country that have gone through such a process. In no other country has been ever recorded such a situation.

However, we have no other choice. They are not people elected by us. Neither these ladies and gentlemen on the right side of this hall have not been elected by us. We can’t choose our opponent, but you just face the opponent. The thing is that we face each other as opponents inside this hall, but outside it we have to deal with a political force that sees as an enemy.

We should just keep doing our job relative to the national ambition and interest to take Albania forward on its path towards integration into the European Union, keep honouring our obligations towards the democratic process in Albania and the June 30 local polls.

The June 30 elections are non-negotiable!

The June 30 election day is stipulated by the Constitution and was set by the President of the Republic in line with the Constitution.

I would like to focus on what was claimed today as part of the daily deformation of the truth about two infrastructure projects that have been announced and launched several months ago and have been already forwarded to the Parliament to create the necessary conditions for full transparency and make a decision here. I mean two major infrastructure projects for the tourist Albania we want, namely Balldren-Milot road and Orikum-Llogara road segment.

I am referring to our program and it might be the case to highlight once again the whole mountain of lies, defamations, abuses and non-sense about over our policy we have already announced from the very outset and has been continuously implemented through efforts to build public-private-partnerships in order to improve services and consolidate development. As of today, over 1 million people have undergone at least twice the preventive health check-up since the program was launched.

It is critically important for the people to understand that the health check-up procedure, now provided for free, was totally impossible prior to building the public-private-partnership programme and people had to pay 80 000 lek just to undergo the basic health tests and the whole procedure cost is covered by the state budget. The program is funded by the state budget under a partnership process with the private company, which on its part has not received the whole amount of money earmarked for this service over years, but it has invested in the service and receives a part of the funding provided by the state budget to ensure health check-up for free for the citizens.

The public-private partnerships, or the broadly misused term concession, are not criminal methods, are not forms invented by the international mafia. They are not abusive scheme to make profits at the citizens’ expense, but they are funding schemes and models to improve a quality service to the public within a short time span or development of an infrastructure project that would have been impossible for the state’s capacities. It’s as simple as that. Their value is gauged in terms of benefits to the public.

With the number of people undergoing the primary check-up growing to over one million we have provided citizens with the opportunity to check their health and prevent serious health conditions they are unware of and this reduces the health care costs. On the other hand, it is universally known that Albania has been praised by the World Health Organization for the preventive check-up program.

Similarly, some 95 000 surgical interventions have been performed in 2018, which, thanks to the public-private partnerships are no longer performed by using the China-Albania relations era scalpels and scissors, but instead they are performed with the use of high standard equipment coming from Germany. Of course, partnership was needed to employ a private sector company ready and capable of investing and ensuring delivery of this service which the state budget pays in tranches over years. For the first time, Albania’s health system features an equipment sterilization infrastructure up to the best international standards. When we took this step, we have first analysed the terrible rate of consequences that ensued for the patients who underwent surgical intervention in our hospitals and the totally unacceptable number of the postoperative infections due to the lack of sterilization standards and lack of instrument standards.

The same is the case of the medical labs that will broaden range of tests due to be carried out and they will serve the citizens too.

The question is pretty simple; do the citizens pay in exchange for such services? Do they pay to undergo the primary health check procedure?

No, they don’t!

Who is the one to pay instead? The government does.

Should a patient undergo a surgery, does he pay anything to cover the completely new instrument’s cost? No, they pay nothing. The improved quality and standards are safeguarded and provided by the state budget that pays back the company’s investment in tranches. Meanwhile, the other significant effect in this process is the enhancement of the personnel capacities.

Let’s dwell upon the road project costs. It is unthinkable that the kilometers of roads are measured as if being fabric for tailoring. When selling fabric for tailoring, the price changes depending on the suit’s size, but when we talk about miles of a road we should consider what the road construction includes. You can’t merely ask how it comes 17 kilometers of road cost so dear? This is how it is possible.

First, we have clearly stated from the outset that once we complete construction of the previously launched road projects, we will construct roads up to European standards. Both roads currently being constructed meet the standards of A highway. Only a short segment of the Nation’s Highway meets such standards. While Tirana – Elbasan highway is the most significant example of how everything ends up when you do things in a hurry, as the project’s cost is three times higher than projected.

The road linking Milot and Balldren includes construction of two huge bridges along its stretch, namely a 224-m long bridge over Drin River, and another long bridge over Mat River. The bridges are two major projects. The project also includes six overpasses and underpasses and, being an A standard highway no transformation of the road into a corridor of water pools, warehouses, trampolines, junkyards and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, the new road will not isolate local residents along the two sides of the road, yet it won’t allow them to independently open new roads to gain access to the main highway. This means that the project also features two 9.5 km-long parallel roads, as a 7-km service road for all residents on both sides of the highway.

More importantly, the whole project cost also includes a 13-year maintenance program due to be carried out by the construction company. The only infrastructural project ever built in Albania and deserving a kind of respect is the Nation’s Highway, although it doesn’t deserve the whole respect because of the fact that the road’s estimated cost exceeded over one billion euro and it has yet to complete and it requires more money. Secondly, it fails to meet A standard along its entire stretch and it fails to ensure what forced us to impose a road toll, that is the road’s continued maintenance.

The contracts stipulate maintenance operations for a period of 13 years and whole cost will be covered by the private companies. Finally, the private companies are the ones to invest their own capital and the state budget pays them back each year.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia announced his government’s plans to construct the14-km road from Kosovo border to Skopje with an estimated cost of 120 million euro. How is it possible that one thinks of measuring the roads as if being fabrics for tailoring and then start leveling allegations for embezzlement and talk about stealing and robbers?

It happens just for a simple reason, because you are a thief or someone who has implemented such practices in the past or a potential thief who keeps thinking on just stealing.

I don’t know how one can questions the road projects this way?

Let’s consider the Orikum – Llogara road project. Each of you and many of those watching us now have had the chance to drive along the Llogara road and have seen the road’s poor state for themselves. First, it is a tough terrain in geological terms. Second, because of the terrain, the project envisages the road’s deviation towards the rocky part, so the new road will stretch along the rocky terrain, in order to avoid the landslide-prone part and it certainly increases cost.

We are seeking to build new roads and highways up to highest European standards that also are maintained according to the highest standards in order to help development of the country’s tourism industry. The entire area is a main destination with an intense tourism industry activity.

You remember quite well that visitors from Kosovo, driving to Shengjin or Velipoja, had to take the turn guided by a pile of tires along the road as no overpass or underpass was constructed. No overpass, or underpass used to exist there. The area has tremendous tourist development potential and we can’t afford that the road segment linking Tirana and the country’s south, or Kosovo and Montenegro with that area, which stretches along coast, fails to meet any standards.

I forgot to mention the fact that Milot – Balldren road also includes two tunnels. Of course, it is quite a different story to open a one-km long tunnel and construct a one-km long road. How one can measure the costs in this way and tell people the same old story and allegations of theft.

It is regrettable, but on the other hand that’s why we have been voted for and this what we will keep doing. We have been elected to do things we have pledged and pledge things we can do.

Since I started serving as Minister of Culture, then as Tirana Mayor and now as Prime Minister of the country I do remember not a single development project that has not become a target of mud and smear campaigns, accusations and defamations prior to the project’s start. I don’t remember a single one! There has always been the same old story, theft, theft and theft alone! Meanwhile I know not a single project developed by those raise such allegations today that deserve full respect. Please mention one of them. One might say they built roads. Which roads did they build? No, they just launched and held tenders.