Address of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the international conference “Electronic building permits”:‏

Hello to everyone.

We have been holding conferences and seminars for many years, and most of these meetings have not been really worth it, while they have left a trace in very few occasions. But this is one of the rare occasions when a meeting, rather than internal, is at a regional level and is worth it in order to advance a historical process, such as the Berlin process which takes place not just at the highest level, based on the interaction between senior authorities of the region and those of the European Union, but also at other levels. I believe that the most important aspect of this process is exactly what happens at other levels, because there is a very wrong perception of the process when it comes to what we will benefit from this process. Many see this process as an opportunity to get money from the European Union. They are wrong!

Of course, it is necessary to finance major joint projects that are necessary for this new regional cooperation, but we must forget that the European Union is generous. It is not a generous organization. I would even say that is an avaricious organization. Thinking that you can get easy money from the European Union means that you believe an illusion. I don’t mean “avaricious organization” in a negative sense, but I want to underline that you can have extraordinary opportunities with the European Union and within the European Union, but there are also tremendous obligations that you should first meet in order to take advantage of the opportunities.

We are aware that, as people of the Balkans, we happened to be again part of a paradox. As soon as we were ready to behave like European people, the European people got increasingly confused about the European Union. Peace and cooperation among us didn’t occur at the best of the times. To understand how much true this is just have a look at what happened with the refugee crisis. Countries outside the European Union, such as Serbia, were much more faithful to the European values than countries within the European Union, and I won’t name names for I would have to name a lot of them.

On the other hand it is necessary that we fight and dismantle the perception that the Berlin Process is a competition where countries are in the running for who is going to get more money from the European Union. It is not so, it doesn’t work this way and it will never happen this way. We have a map of the path to follow, and so far we have moved faster than the European Union. This is normal. We need to run, they don’t have to run for us. We run for ourselves, with each-other. They are in a situation which is complicated, and the support they have given to the Berlin Process is of an extraordinary historic importance, but the money needed to finance the projects set as priorities will be allocated in instalments, and it will never be as much as our collective imagination thinks it is.

There is one more thing, which is very important: what we can do without money in order to generate more money. And what we can do without money in order to generate more money is what we can do and must do without the support of the European Union. It is not the European Union that prevents us from rapidly liberalizing trade relations, from rapidly bringing down non-tariff barriers, from turning our region into an area that functions as a part of the European Union, although it is not in the European Union. It is not the European Union that prevents us from going beyond CEFTA and making producers, exporters, merchants of all countries have no limit and no need for as many documents, authorizations, licenses and certificates as the boundaries they have to cross.

It doesn’t take a great mind to understand that if we move rapidly in this direction, we will be richer, our people will benefit more, our countries will benefit more and our economy will grow more. All this will happen, no matter “how much” and “how” projects directly related to the will and European funding are progressing. This will give each country of the region and the region itself a greater reliability, a greater seriousness, and we will be taken more seriously.

We have begun a process with Kosovo and have seen both sides of the coin, we have seen significant benefits. Our exports to Kosovo increased 238% in 2015, thanks to some steps we have taken to bring down administrative barriers and to unify procedures. Likewise, Kosovo’s exports have had a symmetric increase. Imagine if this happens with all the countries and if, without prejudice, we merge borders for people, goods and every interaction.

It is not at all difficult to draw the conclusions that were presented by the World Bank at the last meeting in Vienna. According to these conclusions, we can open a new chapter in the economy of our country and of the region respectively, provided that we have a map of administrative measures and a series of agreements signed by our countries. And this has been the proposal of Albania for the next meeting in Paris, for which I am grateful to the World Bank for agreeing to coordinate the efforts of all countries, through offices in each country, and thanks to the leadership of the Regional Director of the World Bank and all directors of World Bank offices in each capital city.

I am convinced that if we succeed, and I believe we will succeed, to attend the Paris meeting with a document agreed in technical terms, in order to have it agreed in political terms among all the prime ministers, in order to launch a process to bring down the non-tariff barriers and numerous bureaucratic obstacles among our countries, we will have an immediate impact on the economy, on trade and on the whole process of interaction at other levels.

We have had a great achievement, which is that if the Serbian Prime Minister and I meet this is no longer news. We have to call and wait for reporters, contrary to what it was only 2 years ago. This is incredible normalization compared to just two years ago. But this is part of the past. The time of the historical photos is over. Now it is time to develop relationships at all the other levels, and have these relations function normally.

We can agree at the political level, but we can remain in the same unchanged situation if we do not create the conditions for cooperation and agreement at other levels, if agencies and other institutions do not operate with the same will and do not clear the paths blocked by bureaucracy, laws and inadequate agreements of the past.

In this aspect it is of fundamental importance the opportunity to learn from each other, to learn from the experiences of each other, and to see how the mistakes made by one country can be avoided by each of our countries, in addition to taking positive experiences.

The electronic building permits are a step forward that Albania is taking, and it goes in the same direction with other countries. For us it was more difficult. Unlike other countries in the region, Albania has a very heavy legacy in relation to the database of the property and in relation to the database of the territory.

The territory of Albania has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last 20 and some years. Suffice it to say that approximately 400 thousand informal constructions have been made across the territory, which have totally devalued all the strategies and planning for the future, in addition to wasting the money, millions and billions spent on strategies and planning because the development of the territory was much faster than the implementation of the plans. If we opened a museum of Albania’s plans in the last 25 years compared to the real Albania, we would see two different worlds that have no connection with each other. We would see that the percentage of the implementation of the strategies and plans on the paper, of all sorts, in view of developments in the territory would be near to zero.

We inherited a primitive base for digital operation, but it was like an area of informal buildings where no system in an agency would interact with the other. Creating the basis of interaction was our first challenge. Now this challenge continues by adding the components of this base.

The component of the building permits is a new component thanks to which all those who want to build can apply online and have a response form the system no later than 45 days. The system has been built in such a manner that the administration is obliged to respond, otherwise it will be required to provide an explanation.

In this respect, there is another example among the millions of examples that can be used to explain modernization fighting corruption, and the creation of a reliable system that makes corruption helpless as an alternative to the citizen. It is not people who corrupt the systems, but it is the systems that corrupt people. If systems are not reliable, then it is useless to believe that corruption can back off.

Corruption is neither an Albanian nor a Balkan phenomenon. It is totally untrue to think that Albanians or the Balkan people are by nature more corruptible than the Germans or the French. Let’s bring 50 German people from the German administration and take them to some unmodernised offices of the system, and wait 41 days. Christ endured 40 days. I assure you that on day 41 there will be none of those German people who is not Balkanised or Albanised in this regard. Just as, if we send 50 Albanians or Balkan people in Germany, and they remain there all their life, they will never ask for a tip in the German administration because it is impossible. It is the system that makes it impossible, not the people. Otherwise, Albanians would drive without safety belts in Germany as well. But they don’t even think about it. They fasten their seat belts as soon as they get in the car. Likewise, we wouldn’t see any German here driving without seat belts. But this happens. Not to mention Italians or Greeks who are part of the same family with us.

With the launch of this system we create the conditions for the development of the territory to start being in compliance with plans and reality. This is the reason why building permits were totally blocked for a period of time, when we demanded in a very aggressive manner to end the epopee of informal constructions. We can’t claim today that there isn’t any Albanian left who engages in informal construction, but the phenomenon has been neutralized. We will continue the battle against illegal constructions, and will clear step by step those illegal constructions that hinder the normal development of residential areas or tourist areas. Now we are in the conditions when we can give a new impetus to sustainable development, by having what has been planned match with what is legally allowed and what is implemented in reality.

What has happened is that not only informal construction but also legal constructions, in 99% of cases, have something informal. The additional square meters of informal constructions in Tirana would be enough to build a second town of the size of small municipalities across Albania.

Even here, the challenge is to match what the architects have designed to what is adopted by municipalities and to what is built by investors, and it is not easy. It is very difficult. It is so difficult that when we submitted to the parliament of Albania the proposal that one informal square metre within a formal building makes the whole building informal and therefore subject to demolition, that proposal was not adopted. So, the subjectivity and the creativity of the constructor are still considered in Albania legitimate copyright.

Now we will give it a second try, because we have received many complaints from mayors to end this deviation, this deformation, this interpreting the law the Albanian way by constructors, and make it clear by means of the law that you can build only for what you have been given a permit. You cannot build balconies without a permit; you cannot add stories without a permit; you cannot build annexes without a permit; you cannot build anything without a permit. Otherwise, the entire building is deemed informal. Pursuant to the current law, the state should demolish only that part that is informal. So, the state must invest and climb way up with sophisticated means, being careful to not demolish the legal parts while trying to demolish the informal ones.

This is craziness, which I hope we will end as soon as possible. Not any unauthorized square meter belongs to those who show to be the strongest, but it belongs to the community.

Many thanks, and allow me to welcome all those who are here. Some of them are familiar faces of friends from “enemy” areas, while some others are new faces but all of them are welcomed, and I thank them for their contribution in other levels, in order to take forward a cooperation process on the basis of a peace which is up to us to make it a peace worth living.

Thank you!