Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the regional conference on the “Fight against terrorism”:

 

Welcome to Tirana, the capital of a still candidate country, and for that for sure less boring than the capitals of member countries. It’s true! In some ways, the integration path and becoming members is the way to boredom and normality. Out of the 35 chapters that every candidate country must negotiate with the European Union in its long path to integration, the work does not start with the first chapter, but as a rule with chapters 23 and 24. Essentially these chapters address the legal system, the judiciary, fundamental rights, justice and security.

Even though Albania is still to formally start a negotiation process, it has initiated some time ago a very vital process for its European future in the form of a very thorough radical judicial reform, which now is about to be approved. The judiciary reform, which for us is the reform above all the reforms, is considered as a “mantra” that will provide our country with the necessary momentum to finally leave behind the so-called transition phase.

Regardless of the proverbial mea culpa that we Albanians directed ourselves or our country, which has been duly reflected and sometimes even more than deserved in European Progress on Albania, it should be noted that the judiciary reform brings us very close to untangling our Gordian knot.

Upon the conclusion of this process, Albania will not only open membership negotiations, but will also make a de facto step ahead of even some countries that have opened a negotiation process without yet really reforming in depth their judicial system. However, all high standards in the judiciary, education, healthcare, economy, etc. would be only illusions without a functioning, efficient and sustainable security system. As it has unmercifully eradicated many systems, doctrines or dogmas, the latest globalization wave has challenged and questioned UN traditional security systems.

Even in this sector there is a widely accepted conclusion that there cannot be any unilateral or simply national security, even though paradoxically, many mainly speak of national security.

The challenges, threats, dangers and serious attacks which the world and Europe are facing no longer afford us the luxury to discuss on the necessity of a common security. This concept should have been by now widely recognized. But even for this issue, we are still burdened by the Westphalian heritage based on such terms like “terror”, “sovereignty”, etc. Even today, our traditional structures, even though they have modernized their rhetoric to a point, continue to act as if the world did not have fast massive communication capacities, as if there were no individuals and organizations that have approaches and possibilities to operate globally, etc.

This is the reason why we need to redefine, or at least to translate into the language of this new century, the baseline parameters of the international relations system built on the concept of the Westphalia Agreement.

One of the fundamental conclusions that Albania has reached in the light to the latest developments in the field of security, is that the dangers of today are centred  on extremism, which finds completely new spaces to develop in the context of a very fast evolving society, and as a result of this fast-paced development, it risks leaving behind more and more individuals or groups who are able to transform their frustration, when marginalized, or even aided by technology, into a serious danger for society.

Today’s extremism is a form of viral mutation born in conditions of social marginalization and unlimited access to technology and information. And just like any virus, extremism also can be killed through medicaments. In this sense, the war against terrorists which is a war against the symptom, has limited chances for success and extremely high costs.

The experience of the last decades in the global fight against terrorism has provided evidence of this. Prophylaxis, inoculation, or the preparation of the body to face the inevitable fight with the virus are the only ways to be protected long term from terrorism. In other words, this means war against extremism and preventing the transformation of individuals or groups leaning towards extremist ideas turn into terrorists. The goal of our strategy against violent extremism, which is based more on educating pupils, students and youth on the principles of a free and open society, where there is place not just for me but also for the others, and where the other is someone who might be different from me in many aspects, is to prepare individuals and our society to face extremism. They are different in their own individuality, culture, ethnicity, religious belief, understanding, orientation, language, etc.

We will start this preparation to understand and accept the others, starting in the first years of education through by introducing modules aimed at this, and including not just the religious dimension of this understanding. In addition, our strategy against violent extremism foresees a wide range of programs aimed at mobilizing all political and social actors to safeguard and protect the values of our society, which will always be rule of law, social equality and fundamental human rights.

Despite the fact that in principle we are a society like any other, we have a tradition which affords us the right of a distinguished of an historic and national individuality. The fact that through the centuries we have been able to develop a society and a state built by citizens belonging to the three main religious beliefs in full harmony or in complete brotherhood, as Pope Francis said during his visit to Albania in 2014, the fact that at the end of World War II our country increased manifold the number of Hebrews within its borders when compared to the beginning of the war, even though it was one of the first countries occupied by the  fascists, the fact that no individual institution international report has ever found evidence of xenophobic tendencies among Albanians in many other situations, drives us to believe that Albania can and should share its almost unique experience in the region and even beyond with other countries in an organized manner.

If among European nations each nation has been identified for many special contributions, we Albanians for instance gave European heritage 38 freedom and religion martyrs, and in September this year we will identify ourselves with Mother Teresa, the Christian saint, not only have the right but also the obligation to engage in the promotion of values closely related to freedom and coexistence so present to all of us.

And last but not least at that point, we are very much aware of the danger that the new generations may take all we have inherited for granted, and this is something to be prevented now. The establishment of a regional centre which would aim at promoting understanding, harmony and coexistence, by promoting knowledge of history and of traditions among the peoples and the countries in our region from the cultural, social and religious perspectives, is an important proposal that we thinks has to put forward through this strategy against violent extremism. The establishment of such a European centre in Albania would enable all the countries in the region to share best experiences, knowledge, capacities to throw down ideological, cultural, social, religious and other barriers, and to promote by the strength of examples by building new bridges of understanding, tolerance and coexistence.

The centre will be an important investment in our project to build against extremism and violence a free future. I believe that wide European and regional support for the establishment in Albania of this regional centre for the promotion of coexistence in diversity and against extremism of any form, would be an innovative and long-term investment with multiple and common benefits.

Another very important field is the enhancement, transformation and modernization of security and law enforcement institutions. Without getting into much detail, allow me to list as priorities some of the most relevant fields I believe should find European support also in the framework of the EU-Western Balkan counter terrorism initiative. First, the establishment of a regional centre focused on preventing violent extremism and promoting coexistence, which I mentioned earlier. Second, the development of capacities for information exchange between regional countries on issues related to the war against terrorism, the fight against organized crime, and to civil emergencies, or in other words the development of a regional security network.

With regard to the national plan, I can list the following priorities: a thorough modernization of scientific police capacities through the construction and equipment of a new scientific police laboratory, which would not only meet the needs of Albanian institutions in the fight against crime in general, but it would also enable information exchange between the Albanian, regional and European institutions in this field. In many cases, it has been difficult to hold persons accused of serious crimes accountable in front of courts, because scientific investigation capacities were lacking.

The feasibility study on the border management systems installation, including automatic and biometric control of the crossing-point entrances and exits, verification of individuals case by case on various national and international databases etc., would open a new era. This study would mark the first step towards the establishment of an integrated and interactive system with European border management systems. Albania is a country that in a year is visited by a number of visitors larger than its population. In 2015, we were visited by more than 4 million foreign citizens. Managing such flows with limited human and technical capacities is challenging without maintaining security hospitality standards, thus requiring the improvement of the relevant infrastructure and systems.

The improvement of the borderline control and management capacities, the new challenges related to the refugee crisis in the hotspots of the crisis, have further driven the urgency of the need to develop countries’ land and water border control and management capacities. Considering that the challenge for overcoming the refugee crisis is a joint one, and in making efforts that this crisis does not evolve into a security crisis, it is necessary for us to improve monitoring and land and water border control capabilities. According to analysis, it results that the refugee crisis in the hotspots in Africa, the Middle East, in Asia, cannot be considered to have been solved within our planning period. The improvement of cybernetic protection capacities is another big challenge, at a time when we believe that immigration flows, various trafficking or criminal activities cannot be fought by building walls.

There is another area field where walls, or better, firewalls are very important as a protection feature, and since Albania has become an important part of the digital world with a 62% penetration of internet services, and 147% penetration of mobile communication services in the country – by the way, we are among the poorest countries in Europe, but we are among the most fervent consumers of mobile communication, and in the production of SMS per capita I think we are champions. So the protection of citizens, the infrastructure and the entire cybernetic environment has become an extremely important priority. Ambassador is laughing, because she is part of this consumer society of SMS-ing from one party to another party.

The development and the implementation of a program for a core firewall, or a central firewall for the protection of the national cybernetic environment, is an important priority which can result in the coordination of relevant institutions with institutions in the region and of those of the EU.

The improvement of civil protection capacities is another huge challenge, and as different crisis of the sort have shown us not only in Albania but also in the region. Albania is considered as a high risk country for natural disasters such as floods, erosion, but also disasters related to unbalanced human activities. However, our country has very limited capacities for responsible civil protection, which have been mainly developed within the framework of the armed forces. In compliance also with the highest European standards, it is time for us to develop dedicated and specialised civil capacities that are equipped and prepared to face various civil emergencies that may come to pass in the country. Even in this field, it is important for the life and the wellbeing of the population and our country to develop a comprehensive program that will foresee the development of a necessary legal framework on civil protection, and the development of the necessary human and technical capacities.

Last but not least, I would simply mention that the “European Union” of criminals is not bureaucratic, is very fast and develops with no veto, and no counsel. And this is the huge challenge we face all together, as we in the region face our own challenge which is to keep the momentum of peace and cooperation that has finally come after long years, decades, centuries of conflicts, wars and lack of communication. In the Balkans, we were unique in our own because we decided to make peace and to be good guys in a moment that Europe is not ready any more to evaluate highly what we have decided. When Europe was ready, we decided to be the bad guys, and now we have decided to be the good guys, Europe is going nuts.

But at the end, addressing the cooperation priorities of our country with regional and EU countries in the field of security would require much more time, which I believe that if the relevant leaders and experts find, security matters will find their right place in the framework of the entire relations and integration process of our country in the EU. And I hope that any sort of jealousy in keeping data will end, and the data will be available to anyone that has decided to be part of this unique family and to contribute for this unique family. So let all work together to kill jealousy over data. Thank you very much!