TIRANA, Oct. 28, 2022 – The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was in Tirana on Thursday where she announced the EU executive body will offer Albania 80 million euros in budgetary support for coping with the energy crisis.
She made the announcement at a press conference following a meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Like the rest of the continent, Albania and the Western Balkans are facing the consequences of the energy crisis caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“We in the EU have decided that the only answer we can give is through unity and solidarity and because of this problem we all face together, this means unity and solidarity with Albania as well,” von der Leyen said.
Money to help with several projects
The aid for Albania will be part of a package for the Western Balkans totaling 500 million euros.
Von der Leyen said the money would go to support the investment in a floating solar plant in Vau i Dejës, the modernization of the Fierza Hydropower Plant as well as an energy efficiency project in the dormitories of the University of Tirana Campus — Qyteti i Studentit.
‘Significant help’ but cannot solve ‘staggering’ needs
Prime Minister Rama said the 80 million euros were “significant help”, but that, however, it cannot solve the problem of the import quantities that the country must receive to cover its needs.
He said that by the end of the year, the bill for coping with high energy prices could reach 460 million euros.
“It is a staggering amount for the entirety of our budget,” Rama said.
Despite the increase in global costs, Rama went back to hammering his main talking point that households and small businesses were being given power at subsidized rates to avoid more painful economic consequences and higher inflation.
Extraordinary taxes on private producers
Rama also said extraordinary taxes on the three largest private electricity producers were needed to offset some of the country’s losses.
“It is a tax for the three big energy producers in Albania, who have not done anything extra but sell the energy at multiple times [the previous price],” Rama said. “We don’t have anything against them, but they can’t make huge profits because you got lucky, and we can’t support those who are most in need because that’s how we got lucky. So we will impose the extraordinary tax and with the money of the extraordinary tax we will directly support those who are most in need.”
Rama added that EU directives would be respected on the matter.
The private producers in question are Devoll Hydropower, owned by Statkraft, with the two hydropower plants of Banja and Moglica; Ayen As Energji, the Turkish company that owns the two hydropower plants Peshqesh and “Fangu; as well as the Kurum company with the four hydropower plants Ulez, Shkopet, Bistrica 1 and Bistrica 2, according to media reports.
The extraordinary tax will be applied on the energy sold above the price expected to be determined by the European Energy Community.
Visit part of an all-WB tour ahead of major EU Council meeting in Tirana on Dec. 6
Tirana was the third stop of the tour of the head of the European Commission in the countries of the Western Balkans, after Skopje and Pristina. She moves on Bosnia and then Serbia, ending the tour in Montenegro.
Her visit to the region has as its main goal the support that Brussels is offering to deal with the energy crisis.
This issue is also expected to be the focus of the EU-Western Balkans high-level meeting that is scheduled to take place in Tirana on Dec. 6, marking the first time a European Council meeting, attended by the leaders of EU member states, takes place in a non-member state. A fact which Prime Minister Rama considered “an extraordinary event for Albania.”
