TIRANA, Sep. 11 – President Bamir Topi held a meeting Tuesday titled “Tirana – Albania’s capital, challenges of the future”, in which he brought together Prime Minister Sali Berisha and opposition Socialist Party leader and Tirana Mayor, Edi Rama.
Before the meeting they had a brief 15-minute discussion.
Topi said that the purpose of the meeting was the need the Albanian capital has for institutional cooperation between authorities in order to turn into a European standardized metropolis.
What was more interesting was the fact that the two top political leaders agreed in their opinion that the capital needed joint efforts to move ahead.
The meeting discussed, in principle, what was needed on property ownership, urban development, the need for a functioning city hall council to operate efficiently, and the need for decentralized policies.
Both Berisha and Rama expressed their willingness to cooperate on the capital’s future.
Rama said that the government should block every spontaneous urban development so that the capital develops in a uniform way.
Berisha, on his side, said tax collection is one of the most important elements of a partnership in this development.
The premier assured Rama that the central government was determined to consolidate a fruitful partnership with local authorities to create a metropolitan Tirana.
More than just discussing the capital’s future, the meeting was significant for the country’s ever-squabbling politics showing a sign of softening, or cooperation, or, at least, the two top leaders managing at last to shake hands with each other.
