On Friday the Italian Embassy in Tirana organized a conference for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Invited was MEP Elly Schlein, Vice-Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, the parliamentary committee that follows and evaluates the integration of Albania into the EU.
MEP Schlein has visited Albania several times, creating also cultural connections, including helping the realization of the documentary Anija, about the emigration of Albanians in 1991, directed by Roland Sejko and the winner of the Donatello price in 2013.
Different from the majority of the Italian MEPs, mostly “pensioners” from Italian national politics, Schlein is a true activist, who became famous in Italian politics by holding her election campaign solely on foot and by bike, winning 50,000 votes, enough to win a seat in the European Parliament by herself.
Her usual topics are emigration, integration, the fights against tax evasion and tax equality, all important and current topics also in Albania.
So who better to be the guest of honor at a conference with the theme “What is the future of the European project?” – an appropriate theme for a country that is forever waiting to become a member of the EU, which seems ever more unlikely.
This inattentiveness was also noticed at the conference, which was attended by PD deputy and Chair of the parliamentary committee for integration Majlinda Bregu, together with several ambassadors from EU countries.
There were however no representatives from the Albanian government, and, moreover, also EU Ambassador Romana Vlahutin decided to ignore the event.
Instead, Ambassador Vlahutin made a work visit to inspect to the progress of the tourism projects financed with EU funds, such as the Vlora beachfront and the Karavasta Park in Fier. The latter is now threatened by a project of the company Mabatex, a touristic resort funded by Russian investments, who, so it seems, are the real profiters of the EU investments in Fier.
