TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Tirana, Mar. 14 – The undiplomatic letter Albania’s ambassador to Washington mailed to his bosses after he was presented with the 2013 budget and its leak to the media offered the public a chance to discover the full magnitude of the the dire situation faced by Albania’s foreign service twenty years after the fall of the communist regime.
Despite the progress made in reforming Albania’s foreign service, it still reflects the same problem as the rest of this country’s state bureaucracy.
Unfortunately, in the case of the foreign representation, this means that Albania’s diplomatic service abroad resembles more that of the countries/regimes of the Middle East than other European countries.
Many Albanian embassies abroad for example are filled with party activists, a characteristic of Albanian foreign service in these twenty years regardless of who has been in power. This is not the case just with Albania, but worrisome nonetheless. However, what brings the Albanian model closer to the model of the Middle East is the so called “tyranny of the cousins.”
That refers to relatives, close friends or people who hail from the same part of Albania as the people in power who are appointed to Albanian embassies in desirable locations such as top European capitals regardless of their ability to do the job and lack of the right educational background.
There is a law that regulates Albanian foreign service, but the law is, in fact, like most laws in Albania, often ignored. For example, ambassadors or members of the diplomatic missions may not serve more than one term abroad. Based on the law, they must return to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at home before being appointed to diplomatic missions abroad again.
However, in Albania, it is often the case that one group of diplomats only work abroad and another group only at home.
In addition, the same law, which is based on the best modern international standards, political appointments at embassies should not exceed 15 percent of the staff. The focus is mainly on the ambassadors in this case. But what usually happens in reality is that political appointments actually make up at least 30 percent of the ambassadors, often the case to a large extent for employees of other missions as well.
Albania’s foreign service as a result is filled with people who do not have the right professional skills because they did not get their job through proper competition. Most appointments are based on connections — on the “cousins.”
There has been a good tradition, however. A group of diplomats who have been immune from political changes in the government. We are referring to a group of ambassadors and diplomats who have continued their career, no matter what party has been been in power in Tirana.
Unfortunately this group has started to decline under the pressure from political activists, improper appointments and clannish politics — or even outright purchase of diplomatic posts.
Strengthening and expanding this group of career diplomats is the best way to improve Albania’s diplomatic service.
Applying the best criteria in recruitment, clearing the foreign service of party activists and “the cousins” is the next step.
But the foreign service also needs structural changes.
We should keep in mind that the effects of the economic crisis on the state budget are real, however one should also focus on the fact that Albania is a tiny country, that sometimes tries to behave like a giant when it comes to foreign affairs. For example, does Albania really need to keep all the embassies it currently has?
But more importantly to our point of getting rid of “the cousins” and shifting the manpower where needed: replacing many of the current staff in certain key European capitals with fewer and more capable and talented people can help cut costs.
It is clear that critical look is needed for each embassy and diplomatic mission to see how it fulfills its mission.
For example, Athens or Rome should have more staff because there are several hundred thousand Albanian citizens in those two countries, which often require the services the of the Albanian state. But it seems that under the “tyranny of the cousins” the limited funding that is available, often ends up to feed the big staff at other European capitals, preferred by relatives of ministers or heads of parties.
