Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at today’s parliamentary session:
I take this opportunity that the previous speaker gave me, to talk about three important topics starting from scratch. An urban myth according to which Albania is building a preferential lane for Chinese investments due to which American companies are leaving. It is a complete nonsense.
Firstly, because in Albania both American and Chinese companies, or German companies, or all other companies are in a free market, and the government has no right to determine the willingness of companies to sell and buy shares among them.
Just for the record, both Chinese investments that are supposed to be made in Albania through Bankers and through Rinas airport are direct agreements with shareholders in Canada for Bankers, and with the German shareholders for Rinas airport. The Albanian government has nothing to do in all this. These are direct agreements, therefore it is Canadian or American shareholders, or others who are at Bankers and have the exclusivity to decide what they will do with their shares. And the fact that these shares are sold and have considerable value, proves the opposite of what has been claimed, that the Albanian government has devaluated them. Whereas the Albanian government has done its own duty for the first time in relation to Bankers, which could and cannot have any exclusivity in the relationship with the tax system of the Republic of Albania. They must pay taxes just like any other company. Actually, the Albanian government won the case at the International Court defended by one of the most famous American law firms.
Therefore, this is an absurd tale, not to mention that Albania is part of the 16+1 forum – you have been Minister of Defence – and almost all of the countries in this forum are NATO members, from Poland to the Baltic countries. They are NATO members firmly in a pro Euro-Atlantic line in all areas, and not only we welcome them, but these are countries with the largest Chinese investments. Therefore, let’s not tell jokes in the Albanian Parliament.
On the other hand, last but not least, is the topic on property. You have been here in this Parliament for over 20 years, and in terms of property you have done nothing but a big mess. The parliament has passed 8 different property laws, and has made a mess whenever has dealt with the property issue. And all this, only for the purpose of not untangling the Gordian knot in order to not lose votes.
You have been staying in this Parliament for over 20 years, trying to sell people the utopia that you will return property to owners, while the others have been doing circus stunts from one side to the other in order to not take a decision that should have been taken more than 20 years ago.
We are the only country among all the countries emerging from communism to be 25 years late to do the right thing. The law on property that we voted in this Parliament is the only practical and concrete way to tackle the problem.
There is no ideal solution, since it has never existed in any communist country. On the contrary, all former communist countries have addressed the problem of property with pragmatism and have found an intermediate solution, thus avoiding the path of endless conflicts, differently from what Albania did because of you, and neither have they hesitated to find an intermediate solution.
Just for the record, this government and this ruling majority have made available to owners and for the purpose of solving the problem, 500 million dollars for the next 10 years, out of which 30 million dollars only in this year’s budget. The greatest amount by many times compared to any budget year in 20 over years concerning the property owners.
The delay caused in the process of entering into force the law gave Albania an additional bill with trials in Strasbourg that kept going, without allowing us the suspension for which we have negotiated with Strasbourg, and which comes into force at the moment the Constitutional Court suspends the complaint, and actually the law is functional today. And because the law is functional today, there are no new decisions of the Strasbourg court. I’ve heard many jokers of progress theorising here about what is Tirana and what is Strasbourg.
The law on property has been treated, conceived and designed in collaboration with senior international expertise. All models have been analysed in all former communist countries, and not only in European countries but also in other countries with similar stories. The conclusion has been very clear: Albania does not have the luxury to continue and tell owners “You will get all of your properties back”, or to continue with the stories of compensation, the pseudo-physical compensations that have become a field of unparalleled speculation and corruption. Just for the record, we have reached the stage where the alleged properties are twice the area of the Republic of Albania. Albania has 28 thousand square km, and the properties claimed are some 50 thousand square kilometres. Where are they? Where? Meanwhile we face on a daily basis thousands of hectares obtained unfairly, looted in the name of the restitution and compensation of property.
Therefore, I assure you that any criticism to the property law from the position of the owners, the extreme position ostensibly to protect the owners – from those who have left the owners with nothing, while the properties were given to those who have never been owners – or from the other extreme position, is probably interesting to make small talk here in this room, but it is not related at all with the practical solution to such a big problem.
We did as we committed, we solved the issue of property. It is not the ideal solution because there is no ideal solution, but it is a concrete and practical solution, a solution for which $ 500 million are made available in 10 years. This is an enormous amount in relation to the opportunities that Albania has, but it fully supports the formula of solution. There are 30 million dollars only for this year, and the projection is progressive.
Let us not forget something else. Thanks to our perseverance, the property issue was included in the agreement with the International Monetary Fund. We have returned and paid the arrears of the Albanian government for property issues and the trials of the owners, more than in all of your years taken together. Our will is to not accumulate any more debt in relation to decisions, and this is possible thanks to the law.
The third topic is related to the judiciary reform. Once again, like you have always done, you are using in the most unscrupulous way the good job that the Albanian State Police has done in co-operation with the American DEA in terms of the hot issue of a drug trafficking line, by actively participating for months and months, and you do this only to attack the State Police, to attack the Minister of Interior and to attack the government.
This is something with which we are accustomed. You are unparalleled, as if it were you who do the job of the police, as if it were you who cooperate with the police partners, as if it were you who stop or arrest criminals, as if it were you who acted here in this Parliament even in those cases which you use in the most unscrupulous way to accuse us. This is nothing but an expression of your despair.
If you were so passionate about fighting crime and corruption, you should be staying every day at the door of the Parliamentary Committee on Justice Reform and wait before office hours for the doors to open, sit there day-night until the judiciary reform is done. Whereas, it is you who avoid the judiciary reform like the devil avoids incense, and tell excuses, alibis and tales only to delay the judiciary reform.
Yesterday was the last day. “Time doesn’t matter. It’s quality that matters”. Quality? How is the judiciary reform going to be more qualitative? By closing the door like you cap a bottle of wine and leave it age and improve by itself? Quality? Well come on, sit down and let’s work together for quality.
You escape the judiciary reform, because the reform does two things. First, it demolishes the current pyramid of the justice system. All of the structures and mechanisms that you control today will go down, and an entirely new system will be built where the capacity of political influence and decision-making through the bargaining of political parties is minimized. They are structures created within the system which enable the promotion to management in key or leading positions of all people in the system.
And on the other hand, the promotion of everyone in the system will not be done by fishing in your swamp, but it will be done after the swamp drains. With the vetting system monitored by international partners. Neither Gjin nor Gjon will be able to pass the vetting system if they are compromised with decision-makings in the past, or if there are things to tell openly about their past. These two pillars of the new justice system are two basic reasons why you constantly escape the judiciary reform.
As for the one who talked about what the US ambassador said at the meeting with you, I do not deal with what is said behind doors. Other people are experts in the field, and I can say only this: let’s give an end to this story that is becoming more and more of a burden at the expense of the people and of this country that deserves negotiations to be opened this year in order to become a EU member, and at the same time, of course, not for the sake of negotiations but for the sake of the right to have the justice it deserves and see this system collapse in front of the eyes of everybody, as this reform guarantees.
Let the alibis go, because nobody can save you from the judiciary reform. Neither Frrok nor Nok, Shulla, Hazi, Shullazi or Sali can save you from the judiciary reform.
