Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in the signing of the Pact of Social Welfare:

 

Hello everyone!

Let me tell you since the very beginning that it is true that the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, until yesterday of Social Affairs, was a false pocket of the government for more than 20 years, and usually it was up to one party to give alms, thus showing clearly that the poor, those in need, the people in big trouble were always present in speeches but they didn’t exist in the reality of the government. They remained the favourite target of the electoral campaign in order to buy their poverty, but they did not exist in the vision, in the program, in the everyday approach of those who ruled with no sense of accountability and no sense of belonging face to these people and these families who lived Albania like refugees, and where ties with the common homeland almost did not exist.

In the UK, the treatment of the groups in need is regulated by one law unified for the entire Kingdom in the seventeenth century. This law is named still to this day “The Poor Act”.

There was no such law in Albania when we took office. Only 4 years ago we were 4 centuries ago in terms of putting onto paper, to begin with, the obligation of the society – reflected through the government – toward the people in need. Not to mention the legal framework and the practices for the treatment of the categories in need. A mess fit to those in power who for over 20 years thought how to get by through the days and years, instead of using their power to do the right thing for the country and for the people.

Without mentioning the fact that, as it usually happens in poor countries and in developing countries, money is never enough, but it does always go waste more than in rich and developed countries that have more money and don’t squander it. The chilling example of how the money of financial allowance was spent for many and many years, and how the money to feed the poor and the people in need went to those who didn’t need it, but received it because parties needed the latter, should be enough. The fact that for many and many years, the whole fund of financial allowance was distributed to mayors for election purposes to keep connected a long chain of poverty “slaves” who were crucified in receiving the allowance with the photograph of the vote.

Of course, today financial allowance is far from being enough so that we can rest on our laurels, but it is three times higher than it used to be, and not because the fund for financial allowance was increased by three times, but because we removed from the scheme of financial allowance a quarter of those who received it until yesterday despite living in villas, driving cars, had jobs and received salaries. People can say then that “all are the same”, or that “nothing changes for they pursue only their own interest, they just fight with each other”, but this is essentially not true.

In three and a half years we have created the legal, administrative and financial means to build a compact system of social services. These means have lacked for 25 years. Together with the destruction, we have inherited impatience as well. It is more than natural and understandable that people are impatient because they have been patient for more than 20 years, but what we do is not something than can be done in a heartbeat. What we do is linked with the launch of a complex mechanism that is called state, which functions as a whole, and not as a series of tents, just like ministries were until recently, where each party had its own tent, and each tent minded its own business. Even the Prime Ministry and the Prime Minister himself minded their own business. This is totally different now!

In macroeconomic terms we are currently threatened, as we were seriously threatened from a severe financial crisis, from a financial collapse, not only because of the energy sector which is another story, but also because of the pension scheme. It was simply a hot potato which the governments would passed on to each other, simply by postponing the blast of great social bomb.

At least since I’ve entered the corridors of politics, this reform has been repeated by the World Bank, by the IMF, by all the experts because it cannot be that within the pensions’ scheme the number of pensioners grows while the number of social contributions decreases. A moment comes, and it turns into a pyramid that crumbles with everybody inside.

We did the pension reform and avoided the collapse. Pensions were paid and increased without any sense of responsibility in relation to what was going to happen the next day. Even in this regard there is a big difference. There are politicians, prime ministers, leaders who think about the next term, and there are some others, who are fewer, who think about the next generation. There are some who think how to get along with these ones or those ones, for they are our people “so, let them steal energy as long as we need their votes”, or” “we won’t touch their pensions because we need their votes”, or “these guys don’t have an education, let’s make them policemen because we need their votes, and let’s have some others work at the water supply system because we need their votes”.

But here is also another way to make the system function, and this will allow everybody to have increased chances to get what they deserve according to their merit and to their needs. We removed the cap on pensions which was a torture. It didn’t matter how hard you worked, the pension cap was 240 thousand ALL for everybody. There was no chance you could be paid more. With the reform we removed the cap and managed to increase up to 40% the pensions of those who joined the scheme after the reform. Nobody could imagine until three and a half years ago that pensions could be 40% higher than the cap.

Just as nobody could imagine that the job offices could provide jobs. The previous government paid more employees for the job offices than the number of jobs provided to those who were supposed to get a job from those offices. The job offices scheme was also a party scheme. Actually there were no job offices. They were apartments rented by the state on behalf of the party of the minister, and of course for the friends of the minister.

Based on how the network of job offices has been developed, the job offices have mediated and enabled more than 26.000 actual jobs in less than three years. There are today in Albania 26 thousand people who have found an employment through the job offices, and these people are paid and pay taxes to the state. This is a fact. As is a fact that there are today 31 thousand vacancies – this is the latest figure – in the job offices.

On the other hand this ministry paved the way of a systemic revolution as it reopened the lane of vocational education, which was closed by the old regime because it was deemed that there was no more need for jobs here, there was no more need for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, locksmiths, and for all kinds of professions, there was no more need for oil technicians, agriculture technicians, construction technicians, and so on.

Today’s major employment issue is not the impossibility of creating new jobs, but it’s the impossibility of finding skilled workforce. A lawyer cannot do everything. We became a people of lawyers thanks to a university system that produced the largest number of lawyers per square metre on the globe. But one cannot ask for a job at the enterprises along the highway – all of them have vacancies – with a degree in law. They need milling machine operators, not lawyers. They need technologists, not lawyers. All these craftsmen will be trained in educational schools. We started this revolution with 3 thousand students of vocational education, who were the most penalized by the old system as they could not attend university where everybody else could go, and they were holders of a vocational education diploma, but there were no vocational schools. At least, they had nothing to do with vocational education.

Today, from 3 thousand they were in 2014, we have 27 thousand people attending vocational schools and centres of vocational training. The number has increased exponentially, as the history of these people has shown clearly that those who attend a vocational school will eventually find an employment. Statistics show that those who attend vocational schools have greater chances to be employed than those who attend university, because this shows that the labour market has a great need for skilled workforce.

You cannot put into question the big difference that has made the vote of 2013 in terms of social support not only with regard to a social category that was persecuted once again by those who were supposed to free them from the nightmares and heal the wounds of persecution, but with regard to all the people in need. I mean here for instance the fact that the number of people with disabilities who have been employed is twice the number compared to one year ago. Whereas this figure cannot be compared to that of 3 and a half years ago as there was nobody who could help them find a job.

The fact that people with disabilities are employed doesn’t mean that they won’t receive financial allowance during the first 4 years of employment in order to increase their support. In addition, it is unimaginable that the state doesn’t pay its dues to people with disabilities. When we took office, we took on large inherited debts also both for the people receiving financial allowance and for the people with disabilities. It was money that the state had in its coffers from budgets approved in Parliament for them but which actually wasn’t spent for them but was squandered for electoral campaigns. Today people with disabilities are not only beneficiaries of full and regular payments, but 67 thousand people with disabilities, 18 caretakers and 72 thousand invalids of work have received also year-end benefits.

All these are a lot compared to where we started from, but they’re little compared to what is needed. We have done a lot, there is a lot to be done, but there is also a lot to lose if we go back. There is a lot to lose, if we don’t keep taking forward the reforms with determination, and if we don’t keep making state with determination. Nobody should even think that this is impossible. On the contrary, it’s very easy. Just go to the tent in the boulevard, assign them their duties and tell them, “come and rule this country”. And I’m telling you, before it is fall, you’ll see policemen again in the crossroads eating sunflower seeds; before it is fall, the job offices will be transformed again into fast food restaurants and barber shops; before it’s fall, people with disabilities and people in need will pour again in the streets claiming their rights, which are now consolidated. Before next year’s budget, the state will start registering debts to all the categories in need, to the enterprises, to all the others. This doesn’t happen because they do it on purpose. They don’t do it on purpose, but they know nothing but this. They don’t have bad intentions. According to them, they have good intentions but the fact is that they know nothing else.

My heartfelt thanks to Blendi. I am sure that Olta will do a good job, also because she is starting it on a good basis. My heartfelt thanks also to all those who have become an example also for the other ministries, the employers of the ministry and of other institutions of this ministry that are very hard to manage, showing that the transition from one minister to another, and the transition from a male minister to a female minister is not that traumatic, but on the contrary it doesn’t affect at all the pace of work and successful performance of the whole team. This is undoubtedly one of the most exemplary teams of this state, and therefore, they have all our gratitude and respect.

Many thanks to all our friends who are here and who represent some very important partners for this ministry. Many things would have been impossible without their help, but thanks to their help the Pact of social welfare will be another success story, another path that is still long and tough, but which is the only path to make a state that now doesn’t recognize only on paper the rights of the poor, the rights of the people in need, but it recognizes them in the reality of everyday life, and makes them feel equal not in terms of wealth, but in terms of respect and attention to them. If many of those who don’t have economic issues need the attention of the state so that they won’t evade taxes, these people need the attention of the state in order not to make them feel alone.

On this basis today, more than 3 and a half years ago, I’m sure that there are for all the people in need many politicians who put salt on their wounds and venom in their hearts, make them blind and fill them with hatred against us. But there are no others except us who can really cure their wounds, and this is one of the main reasons why we should be proud of our reforms.

Many people can rightfully tell me that I say these things because I know where we are going, but they want to touch things. True, but if we don’t walk with determination toward where we want to go, you will never touch what you deserve, let alone that you will have it by those who deserve your contempt precisely because they want to accumulate goods, make career and pursue their own interests taking advantage of your poverty. Many thanks!