Foreign minister resigns, new minister appointed

TIRANA, April 24 – Lulzim Basha is Albania’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs. Albanian Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj on Tuesday resigned from the post saying he was tired after a prolonged work in the last 20 months. “I presented the unrevoked resignation to Prime Minister (Sali) Berisha,” Mustafaj said in a surprise news conference. “I am tired . Tiredness is a reasonable motive,” he said briefly when asked on the reasons. Prime Minister Sali Berisha hailed his work in the country’s integration efforts into the European Union and NATO but said “With regret the premier shows good understanding for his decision.”
It was a move which caught by surprise everyone in the country. There were many opinions on the reasons of resignation but nothing verified. The resignation also came at a crucial moment for the Kosovar independence process, in which Mustafaj was involved deeply during the last months. Mustafaj has been involved intensively in a diplomatic tour at the United Nations and European capitals after the proposal for the solution of the Kosovo status. Mustafaj’s last diplomatic mission was at a regional meeting on NATO integration in neighboring Ohrid, Macedonia.
Mustafaj expressed his gratitude to the premier, his staff and the diplomatic corpse with whom he had collaborated extensively. Mustafaj took the ministerial job since the start of the centre-right coalition Democratic Party government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha in September 2005.
Less than 24 hours after Besnik Mustafaj’s resignation Prime Minister Sali Berisha Wednesday replaced him with Lulzim Basha, one of the best choices that he had for the recent vacancy. He also brought back Sokol Olldashi to the cabinet. Lulzim Basha becomes the new foreign minister to replace Besnik Mustafaj, who resigned Tuesday saying he was tired. Basha’s post of minister of public affairs, transport and telecommunications will be filled by Sokol Olldashi, who earlier this year resigned from the Interior Ministry post to run for the Tirana mayorship, which he lost in the Feb. 18 local polls.
Lulzim Basha, a lawyer by education has received a degree (Meester in de Rechten equivalent of LLM) in European and International Public Right at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. His vast experience includes working for the UNMIK Justice department, being part of the Investigation Committee for War crimes in ex-Yugoslavia and being a Member of Parliament as one of the leading figures of the governing Democratic Party. His work a Minister of Public Works, Transportation and telecommunications has been praised as one of the leading performances in the cabinet.
The new ministers – in the second government reshuffle of Berisha’s cabinet after that of March – have to be approved by the president and also by parliament, where the governing Democrats hold the majority of the 140 seats. Berisha’s Democratic Party-led center-right ten-party coalition has governed the country since September 2005, when it won elections to replace a Socialist-led coalition. Albania expects to become a full NATO member next year and it has also signed a pre-membership deal with the European Union.