By Sali Berisha
I feel immensely indebted to the Council of Europe for the continuous support to Albania. Council of Europe was the first international institution I visited in 1992, only a few weeks after I was elected President of Albania, asking your assistance for our project of building a democratic society based on the rule of law, upon the ruins of the most Orwellian dictatorship Europe had known. Since then the Council of Europe has always been by our side.I am deeply moved and proud to speak before you, all dear friends with whom I have had the opportunity and the privilege to debate and defend the democratic values and principles we hold in common. This enriching experience inspired and empowered me to lead the efforts of the Albanian citizens to vote out one of the most kleptocratic regimes of modern times, which was installed in Albania.
Moving toward a new European reality
I believe in your memory still linger on images of past unpleasant events and unhappy news about my country. I stand before you today to assure you that Albania has buried those events in its past and is swiftly moving forward toward a new and European reality.
Last year, overcoming the autocracy of country’s kleptocratic regime, Albanians succeeded to produce a peaceful rotation of power. They voted in scores to tear down the wall of corruption, organized crime and poverty which was thrusting them away from the democratic world. The Council of Europe Resolution on Elections in Albania and its monitoring of last year’s elections were a valuable encouragement and assistance to all Albanian voters. My Government took office pledging to restore the rule of law – an the essential condition for guaranteeing fundamental rights of citizens – fight with zero tolerance organized crime, uproot the kletpocratic system, and consolidate democratic institutions, as the foundation of all other reforms. A year ago, more then two thirds of all court decisions were not enforced, while the index of law enforcement in the country was amongst the lowest in the world. Since then, firm and fair application of law, enforcement of all court decisions and abrogation of hundreds of unlawful decisions, have made law prevail throughout the country. During past years, Albanians suffered more than many other people from organized crime, which due to its symbiosis and collusion with politicians and public officials in all levels of government, become so powerful that was practically the real power behind government decisions, thus managing to make Albania a major trafficking territory.Facing such reality, we adopted only one stand: zero tolerance towards crime. A year later, I am happy to inform you that thanks to the courage and high professionalism of our police forces and other law enforcement agencies and with the excellent cooperation of law and police agencies in other countries, more than 33 major criminal groups and organizations have been cracked down; hundreds of their members and all their bosses have been brought to justice, while their assets worth millions of euros have been seized and confiscated. In a drive to curb criminal trafficking, the parliament enacted a three year ban from our waters on speed boats, which were widely used for drug and human trafficking. As result of these efforts, according to the International Center for Fight Against Organized Crime based in Bucharest, drug trafficking routes have moved outside Albania. Albania is today a safe country and it is widely perceived as such. The fact that during the summer 30 percent more foreign tourists visited Albania is a clear indication of this new reality.
Energetic measures to overcome corruption
In past years, corruption in Albania developed into a kleptocratic system. According to international reports bribing and illegal payments that Albanian citizens and businesses paid to officials in exchange for the very services and rights they were entitled to have freely were estimated at around 1.2 billion euros. Country’s customs and justice system were amongst the more corrupted in the world, while the state capture was a wide phenomenon.Fight against corruption – the cancer that weakened and drained the body and the soul of my nation – has been another major priority for the Albanian Government. We have initiated thorough energetic measures to overcome corruption. As part of these measures:
ՠwe adopted a small government structure and put the government on diet, thus replacing the large and beefed up administration we found;
ՠwe instituted new administrative and ethical standards aiming to prevent use of public money for private benefits;
ՠwe decreased by 40 percent all administrative expenses, most of which saved by simply ending the mismanagement and abusive use of public funds by the administration;
ՠwe amended the law on the conflict of interest. While previous administration was built on the conflict of interest, today there are no reported cases of such conflict by any public servant or official;
ՠwe amended the law on public procurement. As result, 92 percent of goods and services are procured through open bidding compared to a mere 25 percent a year ago.
ՠParliament approved a law on whistle blowers and denouncers of corruption, which offers them special protection under law and rewards them with 6 percent of the recovered funds.
Our fight against corruption, smuggling and fiscal evasion has given significant and encouraging results. Thus:
ՠrevenues from tax collection have increased by 24 percent from the forecast, which allowed us to have a supplementary budget in June;
ՠcost of procurement has decreased by 25 percent for the same goods or services as before.
ՠas I mentioned before, the administrative expenses of the public administration have decreased by 40 percent.
ՠbribing has also declined significantly.
Corruption is a cancer for the society. We have given a firm blow to the klecptocratic system we inherited and are continuing our efforts with zero tolerance for uprooting completely this harmful phenomenon.
Creating a favorable business climate
Creating a favorable business climate and making Albania the most attractive country for foreign investments is our Government’s main objective in the economic domain.
To this end, alongside our efforts to restore and consolidate the rule of law, we have embarked on a truly fiscal revolution. Our goal is to implement a flat-tax, at the lowest rate in Europe. So far, we have considerably lowered all taxes. According to the KPMG ranking, in 2006, Albania was the country with the highest percentage rate of tax reduction in the world. In addition to fiscal measures, we lowered 33-35 percent the price of electricity for business; cut in half the cost of business registration and reduced the time required for business registration from 42 days to only 8 days.A thorough deregulatory reform aiming to widely liberalize the licensing and administrative business procedures is underway. Last but not least, the Government has launched a new initiative – Albania 1 Euro. From now on, investors from your countries can enter Albania paying only 1 euro at the border; register their business paying 1 euro, or rent for 1 Euro for 99 years the land necessary for investment in productive activities. Mines, hydropower plants, railways will be given out to investors for 1 Euro. A full range of other services will also be offered with the price of 1 Euro. I would like to use this opportunity to kindly ask you to encourage investors in your countries to consider the opportunities and potentials that Albania offers. Albania 1 Euro is our promise to them. In cooperation with the Council of Europe, Government has also embarked in meaningful reforms in the field of decentralization, education and other sectors, such as property reform and information technology. “Albania in the age of internet” is our new effort to boost the IT penetration in the Albanian society.As a result of all our round reforms our economy is performing well, is growing. This year we expect to have a significant growth estimated at least 6 percent. By the end of this year, Albania will hold local elections. The government is determined to take all the measures and make every effort to ensure that these elections are free and fair. I would like to ask the Assembly to monitor our elections.
Albania’s western vocation
On 12 June 2006, Albania signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union. Ratification of this Agreement by the European Parliament, in the beginning of last month, was the ultimate recognition of Albania’s western vocation and the common values that Albania shares with your nations. At the same time, it was the very appreciation of all 25 EU countries for the reforms undertaken by the government that I chair, and in general the appreciation for Albania’s overall peaceful transformation during the past 14 years. During this period, Albania has changed from the most totalitarian communist country of coerced atheism and hyper-collectivisation into a country with consolidated political pluralism, remarkable religious pluralism and tolerance, with a flourishing private sector that counts for more than 80 percent of the country’s total production and with an income per capita that has increased more than 11 times in 14 years. Albanians marked these achievements due to their great and unwavering efforts, but also due to their generosity and exceptional solidarity. In this endeavours they greatly benefited by the overall assistance of your governments, your nations and the taxpayers of your countries. The assistance and the support of the Council of Europe has played a great role to this end, and we remain always grateful to you.
Seizing this opportunity, I would to reassure you that for my government the Stabilization and Association Agreement is the most significant contract of my nation with the member states of the European Union that constitutes the roadmap for Albania’s full integration in the EU. It is for this significance that I kindly ask you to positively persuade your parliaments to ratify it as soon as possible. For 14 years Albania has build and retained an excellent and loyal partnership with NATO and the USA. Our armed forces are undergoing a deep transformation which aims to build a modern and professional army. Our soldiers are serving alongside NATO units in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and, in coalition with the United States, in Iraq.
My government is determined to take all necessary reforms and pay every price to deserve the invitation to join NATO in the first enlargement summit. Albania’s membership in NATO is the most secure future for Albania and her citizens. The support of your governments and your parliaments to this process would always be highly valued and appreciated by my nation. The tragedies, wars and cruel dictatorships that the people of the Balkans experienced during the later part of the last century did not extinguish their aspirations to freedom, human dignity and integration into the EU and NATO. In a matter of few years, the Balkans leaped from the age of violent confrontations, wars, ethnic cleansing and blind nationalisms, paralleled only from those of East Africa, into the age of friendly political, economic and military cooperation and of irreversible regional and European integration. 2006 is an historical year for the peoples of the Balkans. They are today more united then ever in their European project.
Two important countries of the region, Rumania and Bulgaria, will become members of the European Union on the 1st of January, 2007. Croatia has opened its membership negotiations with the EU. Macedonia was given the status of EU candidate. Albania signed its Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. The SAA negotiations were opened with Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Montenegro proclaimed its independence. Kosovo is moving towards finalization of its status as a free and democratic European country.
The final status of Kosovo
A few months ago I visited Kosovo. With great pleasure I witnessed there that no other country has changed more than Kosovo in the past 7 years. Out of the scorches and ashes of hundred of thousands of burnt houses in its towns and villages, from the rivers of tears, enormous human sufferings and blood, out of the mass graves, the citizens of Kosovo rose like phoenix. With the precious help, generosity and extraordinary solidarity from your nations and governments, they built anew hundred of thousands homes, schools, kindergartens. They held fair and free elections. They built, with the assistance of the best western expertise, efficient democratic institutions and established the rule of law. I was particularly gratified to witness in my meetings with the common people from all ethnic origins and their political and religious leaders their firm will and enthusiastic efforts to built a European Kosovo, where all citizens are equal before the law. I was witness to the commitment and determination of the Albanian majority to forgive, but not forget, to respect and guarantee the freedoms of all the minorities and Serbs in particular, to respect their religious and cultural heritages and their languages.
In the past century, Kosovo was the very heart of the Balkans crisis. I believe that a fair and just solution of the Kosovo issues, in respect of the will of the Kosovo people, is closely linked to the stability of Albania, but also other neighbors – Macedonia and Montenegro – as well as the stability of the region.
Regrettably, despite of all the changes that have occurred in Belgrade after the fall of the Milosevic regime and despite of all fundamental differences between the current Serbian leadership and yesterdays Serb communist nomenclature, still the ghost of the freater Serbia persists to be there and lack of realism still dominates Belgrade’s stand towards Kosovo. As a witness to the Balkans developments during the last two decades, I would like to point your attention to the fact that there are no essential differences between the position adopted in the Serbian constitution in the 1980s and the present Serbian constitutional scenario of 2006. I would also like to remind you of the fact that in the years 1991-1995, Belgrade’s only option on the Kosovo issue was its partition drawing up maps that they changed every three months. Still today, in 2006, partition of Kosovo remains Belgrade’s only option for the solution of this crucial question of the Balkans.
Yet, I am deeply convinced that changing the existing international borders in the Balkans bears the danger of awakening the old conflicts with severe consequences for the region. Furthermore, more than 90 percent of Kosovo’s population is Albanian, to whom Kosovo has been their home since the very beginning of time. Fancying its partition with the aim of creating a pure ethnic country, in a region where such homogeneous countries do not exist, would not only unhelpful, but also dangerous.
Albania has adopted and maintains a realistic stand for the solution of the final status of Kosovo. We have fully supported the mission of President Ahtisari and the Contact Group.We believe that the final status of Kosovo must guarantee the rights and freedoms of the Serbs and all other minorities in that country; it must guarantee full and effective implementation of the decentralization process in compliance with the European Chart on the Local and Regional Authorities; it should ensure full respect for cultural and religious heritage; it should endorse the expressed will of the Kosovo people for independence.
I think that the independence of Kosovo is essential to its economic and social development and crucial for its stability and the stability of the entire region. The independence of Kosovo will provide a permanent answer to the fluidity of the Albanian factor in the Balkans. This is why, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro share similar views with regard to the final status of Kosovo.
Furthermore, I believe that the independence of Kosovo would contribute to the stability of Serbia, as well, as it will help Serbia to depart from its past, marginalize its radical forces, speed up its demilitarization, thus helping Serbia to integrate in the Euro-Atlantic institutions and catch the future this country deserves.
Nonetheless, due to the absence of realism in Belgrade, an agreement between Pristina and Belgrade seems illusive. That is why I believe that a the only alternative remaining is an imposed agreement, as has always been the case with all important agreements in the history of the Balkans during the past 150 years.
At the same time, I remain deeply convinced that Albanians and Serbs must follow in the great tradition of the European nations and start a new chapter of good and friendly neighborhood and cooperation to the benefit of our common European future.
This speech was delivered by the Prime Minister Sali Berisha at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe October 3rd 2006
