Tropoja citizens joined the Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday in the latest meeting to take stock of what has been already done and what can be better done in the future for Tropoja and the surrounding areas.
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Thank you for attending and your presence! I have visited Tropoja on regularly basis and I can openly state that I fell really encouraged by the obvious and tangible changes and, most importantly, I am encouraged by the fact that something I felt while on my way here was confirmed by the Mayor, namely the continued increase in the number of newly-built structures, investments in building new houses, villas indeed, a fact showing that people feel that things are changing and the area’s tremendous potential has started to become more tangible and more obvious as an opportunity for development.
On the other hand, I am also encouraged by the fact that as many as 150, 000 local and international tourists and sightseers have visited Tropoja this year.
You know it much better than I do what local government and local authorities have already accomplished, the projects they have delivered on, and what the municipality should do better, just like you know better what the central government should still do about this area, but I would try to briefly comment on the current overall situation, as we are all through a fragile moment that has to do with the lives of everyone of us and has to do with the fact that we now are part of a community of nations and countries involved in an Alliance, against which a war has been already waged on. The war in Ukraine is not simply targeting Ukraine only and the Kremlin’s project is not just to annex certain parts of Eastern Ukraine, but through aggression on Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to bring the whole West to its knees, namely all the countries within this Alliance we definitely belong to. Indeed, the crisis was a warning of what was about to ensue and the crisis has now gripped whole Europe, where the energy prices have skyrocketed and at the very onset of the crisis we decided to place a financial shield to defend all the households and small businesses so that they are not affected by the rising energy prices.
As a result, the electricity bills forwarded to your homes contain the pre-crisis rates, paying just 20% of the true electricity price, whereas 80% of the electricity bill of each of you is paid by the state through its budget under the government decision to protect the household consumers.
This is also the case with the small businesses that pay the pre-crisis electricity rates and the difference of the real price is again covered by the state budget. The cost of this financial shield for the families and the small businesses is estimated at around EUR 450 million.
However, by deciding to protect small businesses, we have actually defended consumers as the electricity price is not reflected on the bills of the everyday food products and other items people buy in shops. So, the war-driven inflation, which is unavoidable, stands at a lower rate in Albania as compared to other countries in the region and we are seeking to keep inflation at a lower rate compared to other countries in the region by continuing to compensate the electricity price.
Albania has yet to generate enough electricity to meet its domestic demand. Current generation capacities, hydropower plants in Albania meet only 75% of consumption when they are working at full capacity during the period with abundant rains, whereas the 25% of the demand is met through imports.
When the rain is scarce, the electricity imports grow. It is for this reason that we are seeking to diversify and increase the number of energy generation sources with the new photovoltaic park already being built in the area of Karavasta, whereas construction of another large photovoltaic park in the area of Spitalle will kick off soon after all the procedures have already completed; the wind power projects we have launched with the European Bank; the Skavica hydropower plant, which is being built by the American company; the liquefied natural gas terminal in Vlora and so on and so forth. All these projects will undergo two development stages and we will fully meet the domestic demand for electricity by 2025, given that abundant rain falls. In the scenario of insufficient rainfall, we will be able to develop full generation capacities by 2029. By then Albania will be a totally sovereign country in terms of energy and will face no problems and will have nothing to do with the international energy markets. By then Albania will no longer be forced to purchase electricity, and instead the country will actually sell electricity, after having met its national demand. This is a major ambitious project we are working on and will keep working until we fully deliver.
Under such conditions, we face yet another problem. We have a public environment with Kremlin having its own representatives and this is really a serious problem, because given these conditions it is out of question that we all come together in a single party, and not everyone agrees on the way how the government, the ruling political party addresses the problems, because debate can be held on these issues and they are all legitimate debates.
The matter is that we are being hampered and by us I don’t mean the government, but we as a country are being hindered by a political group now turned into an alliance unwilling to formally cooperate and agree on the fact that we are under the pressure of a war from a hostile aggression, not simply against a nation that is geographically far away and that is unfortunately being bombed, but it is a war against us, our community, against our belongingness to this community, against our being part of a strategic alliance with the United States of America and the European Union and, at this point, no discussion on the veracity can take place, at this point our public environment cannot be split into those speaking with the language of Europe and those speaking with the Kremlin’s rhetoric.
When a big power like Russia injects and allocates money for a political party, that country certainly does so to recruit as its servant and have that party under its influence. This is universally known and Russians do this everywhere.
In the meantime, one should wonder what would possibly force our strategic ally, the United States of America, to designate persona non-grata someone who used to serve as the President of this country and with whom the U.S. has cooperated; someone who has served as the Prime Minister of this country and with whom the U.S. has cooperated?
Is corruption enough to declare persona non-grata a personality of an allied country? Undermining democracy? How? Justice intimidation!
So, my friends, I am saying that in the light of what is happening today, one should fully read the attitude of the United States and in the light of what is happening we should also recall the 2021 electoral campaign, when I urged former opposition leader Lulzim Basha to distance from the duo.
What does Putin want? Putin wants to cause unrest in the NATO member countries. What are they trying to do? They are precisely seeking to cause unrest? Unrest! Unrest! Because the elections are set to take place in May.
Thank you very much!
