Parties fail to reach consensus on administrative reform

TIRANA, March 27 – Albania’s main opposition and ruling parties have failed to achieve an agreement on starting discussions over a new territorial division of the country.
Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha has issued a long list of conditions in response to the invitation of Prime Minister Edi Rama for cooperation and for a meeting with him directly.
Basha had earlier indicated he would be willing to discuss the matter, but political analysts said that his new conditions were unlikely to be met by the governing parties.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, also leader of the main governing Socialist party, has said the reform cannot wait and the Socialists will act alone if needed, but they would prefer a consensual reform to work together with the opposition.
Rama had sent a letter to his political opponent, Basha, calling for cooperation in the context of the territorial reform of the local administration, the division of the country’s territory.
Rama said in his letter to Basha that the Socialist Party will “guarantee a territorial reform process with full rights for the opposition”.
In more efforts to show reconciliation, the governing Socialists put aside their draft projects on the new laws on the civil administration and also on the change of the media regulator’s staff.
Rama said that the territorial administrative reform has been considered as necessary not only by all political parties in our country, but also by Albania’s partners and important organizations.
“The Parliamentary Commission guarantees that the opposition will have equal rights with the majority, from the beginning to the end. This, and the fact that we have been waiting for the opposition to join us in the Commission, shows our good will to start this process together, although we have the 84 votes which are needed for the reform,” Rama wrote.
Rama made the offer to meet with the opposition leader to share whatever concern he has on this special issue for the present and the future of Albania.
Basha responded saying that such a meeting would be useless if the government refused to keep its pledges on a series of issues. He added that he doubted that the Socialists would be ready to vote at the parliament what they accept on the table.
“In other words you are offering the window of the consensus but not the consensus itself,” said Basha.
In a letter, Basha says that despite political tensions and “the critical narrowing of parliament spaces for the opposition Šthe Democratic Party and I stand for dialogue as a value and as an irreplaceable opportunity to move forward with the reforms in our country.”
Basha’s letter adds that the Democrats are willing to meet to discuss any issue that is in the interest of the country and of democracy – starting with the five priorities of achieving the candidate status and opening negotiations with the EU as a primary national interest, but also including the territorial and administrative reform”
In January, the parliament’s Socialist-led majority approved the creation of a committee dedicated to the territorial reform, where the opposition has an equal number of members as the ruling majority and shares the leadership of the committee and the right of veto. The opposition has refused to participate in the committee so far, conditioning its participation in the reform with “the absent of guarantee for respecting this consensus,” because according to it, the majority has shown that it does not abide by its agreements, referring to, delaying the law for the civil workers, which was approved with the consensus of both sides last May.
Earlier last week, Prime Minister Rama noted that “the fact that we await for some time now for the opposition to show up in the committee, clearly shows our will to start and finish this process together.”
However, Basha said key points remain to be confirmed publically and clearly
“Are you or are you not for voting with consensus of this reform in the Albanian parliament? The consensus in the committee is insufficient,” he added in the letter to the prime minister.
In an interview a few days ago on Top Chanel, addressing this point Mr. Rama said that if the opposition demanded that the consensual product of the committee be automatically approved by a consensual vote, then the Socialists would do so.
European Parliamentarian Hannes Swoboda also said at an interview to a local private television station in Albania that unless the political forces really shake hands and work together for the major reforms, Albania will likely not get a positive answer in June to its candidate status for EU membership.