EC ambassador checks projects in the north

TIRANA, Oct 26 – The Head of the Delegation of the European Commission, Ambassador Helmuth Lohan, last week held a two-day tour in the north of the country where he took stock of the EC-funded projects.
During his visits to project sites, Lohan gave special attention to the local communities in order to find out first hand and discuss with them the impact of the projects in a diverse range of areas from environmental clean-up, to judicial and administrative infrastructure, border management and many more.
In Rubik, Lohan visited the site of the copper smelting plant where an EC fund of almost 4.4 million euro has contributed to the clean up and isolation of the hazardous waste of copper and zinc. The plant has been polluting the surrounding area since the late 1930s and exposing the population to hazardous air, ground and water contamination.
Earlier this year, Lohan visited a similar project, the site of the nitrate fertilizer plant in Fier, where another 1.5 million euro EC-funded project has once more enabled the cleaning up of the site and the betterment of environmental conditions favorable to the health of the surrounding community.
The European Commission will continue its contribution to healthy environments through another action aiming at cleaning up the Chlorine-alkali plant in Vlora.
In Burrel, Lohan visited the Treasury Office which has benefited from a country-wide action funded by the EC with 192,300 euro to improve the functioning of the Treasury Department within the Ministry of Finance by improving working conditions in its district offices. Therefore, along with the Treasury Offices in various districts in the North and South of Albania, the Treasury Office of Burrel has been renovated and refurbished to bring tangible improvements in logistics and working conditions of staff that will in turn improve their internal operations and their services to the public.
In Peshkopi, Lohan visited the newly renovated Dibra District Court. An EC-funded project of 320,800 euro addressed problems such as lack of isolation rooms for defendants, a security system, fire prevention measures, computer networks as well as humidity, cracked walls etc. The newly renovated building includes one penal court room, four civil court rooms, and necessary facilities for the judges, prosecutors, defendants and the public. Furniture and equipment were also an important part of the renovation of the Court.
The visit to the Dibra District Court was followed by that to the Property Registration Office. A newly completed project of 1.161 million euro has contributed to improvements of the cadastral maps, of the Immovable Property Registration System through the supply of equipment necessary for accurate mapping in 16 such offices in Albania.
Lohan visited the Civil Status Office in Peshkopi to take stock of the implementation of the project on the modernization of administrative address and civil registration systems. Mainly funded by the European Commission with 2.5 million euro, this project is steering Albania towards a modernized address and civil registration system, an essential challenge, the success of which affects many other reform processes in the country, including those in health, taxation, social security, free movement etc. EC assistance in this area has already bore fruit in the improvements noted with voters’ lists used in the June 28th general election.