Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama at launching the EU 4Culture programme on restoration and revitalization of Albania’s culture heritage sites damaged because of the earthquake that hit country last November:

 

It is truly a special pleasure that today on the Cultural Heritage Day, which is celebrated all over the world, we sign in Albania the Memorandum of Understanding on an extremely indispensable programme on restoration and rebirth of our cultural heritage monuments, which were severely hit on the tragic night of last November 26th.

It is absolutely significant that we are embarking on this recovery and rebirth programme of these strategic sites on the map of our precious cultural treasures hand in hand with the European Union  that stood by Albania and the Albanian people at so a critical moment and turned into a station that brought together friends from all over the world to demonstrate solidarity with Albanian people at the International Donors’ Conference in Brussels, from which we were conveyed a very exciting and significant message of solidarity through a record high pledge and contribution.

I would dwell upon the record pledge for a second. There is a great misunderstanding on the part of those who have eyes, but they refuse to see, those who have ears, but they refuse to see, those who have mind, but they refuse to think and realize that the pledges collected at the International Donors’ Conference are handled by the donors themselves. To figure out that the EU, through its instruments and in collaboration with a specific UN structure in this case, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will handle the entire programme in technical and financial point of view, either for cultural heritage or schools construction, through another tool and European taxpayers’ money, are the direct responsibility of the EU administration itself.

So, whoever claims and incoherently reiterates “where did the money end up?”, “where did you send the money?”,  “why did you steal the money the international donors pledged?” should open his or her ears and set their mind in motion to listen to this very simple fact. All EU funds are financially handled by the EU itself. It is not a bag full of cash money donated to us after the Conference and we took it and embezzled it the way the fantasy tells all those, who would certainly have done so, should they had the opportunity to do it, or who could have done it with the Albanian taxpayers’ money in the past and who think that we are all the same.

It is very important to point this fact out and I apologize to the ambassador and our partner friends in this project for this necessary clarification. I would go further by expressing sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone, starting with the ambassador, who does not simply perform his mission in his capacity as EU ambassador, but he is also a partner and a very dedicated friend of Albania and Albanians and this makes the difference.

I would specifically express my gratitude to someone who is attending this event and has a key role in this process and thanks to her a very serious and significant report was presented at the Donors’ Conference and which formed the basis for the quake damage assessment and the donors’ pledges to address our needs. My gratitude goes to Milva Ikonomi, the chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance, a Durres-born lady.

Last week, we unveiled the Independence Museum park project in the city of Vlora, a project that in addition to being designed to revitalize, energize and transform one of the city’s central public spaces, it will also serve everyone, be them either Vlora residents, Albanian citizens, visitors or international tourists, explore one of the main sites of our history and the country’s most important house, the Independence Museum House, which for decades now has disappeared behind fences and kiosks and it is not only  invisible, but also not accessible.

What is worth highlighting – Ambassador touched upon this aspect in his speech – is that in addition to the re-evaluation of the sites and monuments of our cultural and national identity, this is also a process of social and economic recovery. All those who have a look-see and are satisfied at looking at what they see and notice on the surface only, without taking the trouble to think about significance of the things they see so often, they randomly turn them down by poking fun at them as facades, decorations, and useless investments and everything else we do for the beauty in this country, whether in the form of urban interventions, or in the form of interventions to protect and preserve beauty, created over the centuries in this country.

It is an indicator of short-sightedness and, I am sorry for the forthright remarks, but it is an ignorance to consider these massive investments we are making, including this massive investment by the European Union in the view of European Albania, and fail to realize that such investments are translated into direct economy.

Few years ago, this museum had its doors closed. And it was not only closed, but also completely degraded. We acted and opened it after a restoration and rehabilitation project, about which many of those I just mentioned used to say: “What the hell do we need museums, when we lack daily bread; why do we need monuments of culture, when we lack water supply; why do we need renovated public squares, new lighting systems, tree-planting; why do we need this whole facade in its entirety, when we lack basis things.” Indeed, beyond the fact that nobody has died of hunger in Albania at least since Skanderbeg-era thanks to the way our society is organized and for the fact that bread has never been scarce, in a narrow sense of the word, bread and every other material benefits grow for every family, community thanks to these facades.

This project, which will affect some of the most important sites on the map of our cultural heritage wealth, will generate more jobs, more consumption and will attract more tourists who will also help to grow consumption and income for the communities, just like it has been the case with every Urban Renaissance project.  It would suffice taking notice of the financial performance of our cities and the areas where such projects have been implemented to figure out the number of businesses previously operating in Korça, Vlora, Fier, Puka and everywhere else, or in every other town or city all over the country and the number of small businesses, shops and hospitality structures operate today. What is the turnover of businesses in the areas where we have invested exactly in this direction compared to the time when one couldn’t even take a picture to send it to someone, because it lacked a proper background to pose without seeming as if being in a very remote country in a continent, far away from Europe.

Growth is exponential. Hundreds and thousands of former old and ruined structures have been transformed into guesthouses that generate economy, though a small one, yet a kind of economy that provides conditions for self-employment and employment.

This programme will support a project to restore Preza castle, the Durres castle, the amphitheatre, the Medieval baths and Ethnographic Museum; the programme will provide funding for restoration of the Kruja castle, the Clock Tower there and the Dollma tekke, the Skanderbeg Museum, the Ethnographic Museum; the programme will finance project to restore the city’s castle and the ethnographic museum in Lezha, the Bashtova castle in Kavaje.

There are many cultural and historic heritage sites in the quake-affected areas that through this investment programme will not only be preserved in terms of their damaged structure, which will be fully restored, but they will be reborn, not only stronger in terms of their structure, but they will provide more potential for economic and social development of the local residents and for everyone else who naturally visit these sites and areas to experience the miracles of our cultural heritage treasure firsthand.

In 2018, the European Commission decided to include that whole year under the cultural heritage umbrella. The European Commission declared it the cultural heritage year and if we were to look at it in general terms, the investment effects that year in view of culture in Europe and in the aspect of the economy, one would see how the two are associated with each other.

I have often stated and I would like to reiterate it. One can see beautiful, but poor countries around the world, but nobody would ever find a country that is both ugly and wealthy. Ugliness, degradation, filth and lack of aspirations based on the idea that there is no need for anything other than charity is a catastrophe. This is the catastrophe we have been through over the years. Those who keep lamenting over the derelict National Theatre Building today on the World Cultural Heritage Day by making use of it to attack “the Taleban” in the government, didn’t lay a hand in no culture monument and didn’t clean even a square meter of dust that had covered all this treasure everywhere.

If we are to look at the list of our interventions over the past seven years to save our monuments of culture, which were about to be destroyed completely, this list is definitely a long one, but the programme we launch with the European Union today is the jewel in the crown of all projects we have implemented and represents a great step forward in this direction, not only in financial terms that includes a considerable amount within the overall amount the European Union has earmarked for Albania, without including pledges and contributions provided by other member states, but also in terms of the know-how this programme provides. This is because it is not merely about restoring the castle in Durres, neither about restoring Kruja castle, nor the Bashtova castle or all other castles in physical terms, but it is about building a revitalization system, the areas around them and a museum system and approach to visitors, including digital guides and everything else.

I am convinced that thanks to this Program, both in Durrës and Kruja, these two fantastic destinations in terms of their potential will bring about a great economic impact and, first and foremost, will make Durrës and Kruja more attractive to more tourists, visitors and will help increase consumption, self-employment and more services. And of course, it will have a significant impact on the future generations, children, who are subject to the other part of the European Union programme, which will support construction of new school buildings and restoration of the cultural heritage sites. Construction of the EU-funded new schools will kick off in the coming days. The new schools will be reconstructed from scratch, just like it is the case with the state budget-funded educational facilities and together we have determined the total number of damaged schools that will be reborn from scratch to set completely different standards and which will not differ at all from the school buildings in every commune and every community in the EU member states.

Thanks again to our friends!

Thanks to everyone working on this Programme!

There is now nothing left but press ahead with the programme implementation and always keep in mind, never backtracking on our conviction that beauty is the most powerful weapon God has given to this country to become sooner rather than later a place everyone would like to visit; a country  that thanks to the beauty and the respect for the beauty and creation of the beauty thanks to our interventions in every sector, we create more jobs, generate more economy and more reasons to be proud of our part, not just for those who bequeathed to us this land, which is the debt we owe to our children.

Thank you very much!