Law and order concerns, EU bid, money issues and image efforts dominated Rama administration’s first 300 days in office, as the government looks to set foundations for reforms it wants to finish within the next three years.
TIRANA, June 10 – When the Socialist-led coalition, Alliance for a European Albania, won its landslide victory in the June 23 elections last year, it put forward clear plans on what it wanted to do in the next four years: EU integration, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and modernize Albania’s ailing health and education systems. It also said it would address Albania’s corruption problem.
Three hundred days since the government led by Edi Rama was sworn in on Sept. 15, 2013, his administration has had to put out fires rising from a crime wave and financial difficulties as well as work on long-planned action to push forward the country’s EU bid – while fighting marijuana cultivation and trying to improve the country’s economic well-being and image abroad.
The government came to power with promises to increase employment and improve quality of life, something the government says it has started to deliver on, while the opposition insist Albanians are worse off than they were a year ago.
Prime Minister Rama said on his social media channels this week that he is encouraged by the government’s results in its first 300 years in office.
“Our analysis of weekly polls shows that during the past 300 days the government has earned high trust from citizens,” Rama wrote, adding he is happy with the government’s performance and will continue to work for the “rebirth” the ruling coalition had promised Albanian voters.
However, the main opposition Democratic Party leader, Lulzim Basha, said this week Socialist-led government had failed in the past year to deliver on its promises.
“They lied about 300,000 jobs, free healthcare, free legalization within 300 days. They offer no alternative. They offer no value,” Basha said at a political rally referring to the coalition of Rama’s Socialist Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta.
Law and order concerns dominated public discourse
The recent police intervention in Lazarat culminated months of work as the government was faced with a crime wave while it had promised to reform and improve the police forces’ work within the first 300 days.
Albania’s government decided to end years of lawlessness in Lazarat, a small enclave in southern Albania often referred to as “Europe’s marijuana capital” for its massive production of cannabis. In mid June, about 800 police officers, backed by armored vehicles, stormed the village in multi-day operation that has netted more than 70 tons of marijuana and tens of arrests.
Gang members inside the village fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns at officers during the raid, but police advanced slowly, securing the village without any fatalities on either side, though two police officers and one civilian were wounded during the operation.
Lazarat had become a symbol of lawlessness in Albania and internationally as a no-go area for Albanian police who feared a confrontation with gangs inside the village would lead to loss of life in among officers and residents in the village located 230 kilometers south of Tirana.
However, success in Lazarat came after a difficult period for the law and order situation in the country, with a wave of crime involving the use of small amounts of explosives in targeted violence.
A series of deadly crimes took place, before police launched another massive operation, making tens of arrests, including a group led by a 30-year-old man who is suspected of being a contract killer and had allegedly committed at least 20 murders in Albania and Greece. Police found an arsenal of weapons and explosives in his Tirana apartment. The police operation came as Albanians have become increasingly worried about a series of remote-controlled explosions that had killed or wounded several people in Tirana, Vlora, Durres and Shkodra.
There was also a political debate over drugs smuggling by air through vacant military facilities – which the government made unusable following accusations from the opposition, which the government rejected. The debate culminated with the crash-landing of a small aircraft in an Albanian beach and the capture of drugs nearby. The case is still under investigation.
EU status, neighbors drove foreign relations
In relations with the world, Albania was finally able to take the next step in its long path to European Union membership, as EU members states officially agreed last month to make Tirana an official candidate to join the bloc. EU foreign ministers gave the green light to Albania’s candidate status late in a meeting in Luxembourg, and the decision will be formalized by the leaders of 28 EU member states during the weekend.
The decision was welcomed by the entire political class in Albania. “It is a very important step forward in what is set to be a long and difficult journey,” Rama said in a press conference.
Albania had repeatedly failed to obtain the status since first applying in 2009, including six months ago when despite a positive recommendation by EU’s executive branch, member states decided they wanted to see more results before granting the status.
The government also reached an agreement with Greece that facilitates travel for children of Albanian citizens born in Greece – giving international spellings to Greek cities in passports. Yet, an agreement over the maritime border remains distant, and Greece has warned it must be reached before Albania opens negotiations for membership in the European Union.
Albania’s executive has also held two joint meetings with the Kosovo government, hailing a new era in relations with Albania’s ethnic Albanian majority neighbor, bit problems have persisted at the border of custom fees and free trade.
Economic efforts focus on tax reform, IMF loan, settling CEZ
The new government pushed through its program for progressive taxation and began the process of settlement of debts to the business community. It also forgave all fines given in the transition period between the two governments, because it said they were imposed politically in the period before and after the elections of June 23, 2013.
The government signed an agreement for an IMF loan of 334 million euros which gave the government finances some breathing room to implement its further reforms. In early 2014, the International Monetary Fund approved a three-year soft loan to assist the Albanian government with the payments of accumulated unpaid government bills and give a boost to the ailing economy by promoting new investments and reducing non-performing loans.
Another major achievement was the out-of-court settlement with CEZ over the botched privatization of the power distribution monopoly. Eighteen months after CEZ had its license revoked and just before an expected EU decision on Albania’s candidate status that could be endangered by a Czech Republic veto, the Albanian government and the Czech energy giant reached an amicable out-of-court solution to the Albanian electricity distribution operator whose majority stake was sold to CEZ in 2009 for 102 million euros and managed for three and a half years by the Czech company until it had its Albania licence revoked in January 2013.
Under the deal signed by the Albanian government and CEZ, whose 70 percent stake is owned by the Czech government, Prague-based CEZ will get in annual installments in the next four years a total of 95 million euros, an amount slightly lower to its initial investment in the Albanian distribution system, but half of the 200 million euros CEZ had warned it would claim in international arbitration proceedings. The deal mediated by the Vienna-based Energy Community foresees that CEZ will receive a compensation of Euro 95.5 million as payment of receivables and transfer of shares in its CEZ Shperndarje subsidiary. This is in addition to Euro 4.5 million already received by CEZ. The amount will be paid in annual installments until 2018. The effectiveness of the settlement agreement is conditional upon several conditions precedent, particularly the procurement of the bank guarantee, approval of the agreement by the Albanian government and parliament, said CEZ Group in a statement.
Other promises remain undone, including removal of VAT from certain food items and reduction of VAT on energy.
In healthcare, the government introduced free medical screening for people over 40 and removed VAT from medicines, but it is yet to implement all the reforms it has promised.
Another major concern for many Albanians are the homes built illegally across the country, so the government acted quickly to approve and implement legalization legislation, which will see many of these buildings become legal and the owners will get deeds in exchange for applying and paying for the land where needed. Much of the process remains unfinished.
Image-driven PM looks to improve how country looks, feels
The government has vowed to ensure clean streets and beaches and has committed military forces to clean the environment to ensure the conditions for a successful tourist season.
Hundreds of Albanian army soldiers and officers joined a government move over the past few months to clean litter from national highways across Albania. The main target areas were in major ports of entry for tourists and places the tourists use.
Albania’s has set cleaning up the country from litter as a priority in the context of attracting tourists. It sees the existing situation as “an environmental emergency,” according a recent statement.
Besides turning to the armed forces, the government has also called on civic organizations and the population at large to join the initiative to clean up the country.
The government has also worked on giving Albania a facelift in other ways as well – from placing beach watch towers to purchasing international advertising campaigns abroad.
Opposition: Albanians worse off than a year ago
Tirana Mayor Basha, who also leads the opposition, has accused the government of creating an insecure climate for Albanians, noting that criminality in general is much higher now and that the government has nominated to top posts some persons who have criminal links.
Basha also accused the government of other failures to fulfill promises, saying Albanian citizens are facing high unemployment, poverty, no security for their lives and no hope for the future. Under such a situation, he said the opposition Democrats has the duty to fulfill Albanians’ hopes for prosperity, development and integration.
Setting foundations for further reform
Perhaps more important than what it has accomplished so far, the government says it has set the foundations for major reforms it wants to finish by the end of this mandate.
These include reforming the administrative system, higher education and the health system.
Albania has nearly 400 local government units that cost taxpayers billions, but there is political minefield surrounds a proposed administrative reform aiming to cut that number by two thirds in order to gain savings and efficiency.
The government wants to finish the reform before the administrative elections set for next year, but the opposition has rejected that idea.
Rama’s Socialists and their political allies say that this reform is fundamental and required along the efforts to get Albania closer to the European Union. They also say the reform will scrap unneeded spending and bring millions in savings to the state budget.
But the main opposition Democratic Party says it fears the governing Socialists will end up using the reform to draw the new borders to serve political interests in elections, starting with next year’s administrative polls, which the central government says should take place under the new structure. The Democrats also say there should be wide public consultation on the matter.
In the end, it is corruption that will be the hardest for the government to tackle.
In a statement on Twitter, Rama said the next year of governance will primarily be dedicated to fighting what has been deemed Albania’s “Achilles’s heel.”
Analysts say fighting corruption will be an uphill battle if the clash between the government and the judiciary this week is any indication.
The government is furious that the judiciary’s governing body has refused to allow the investigation of judges the government says it has proof are corrupt. The High Council of Justice says it will not allow political interference in the judiciary’s work.
