In Friday’s press conference about the Trieste Summit, Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed that “they were prepared to finance projects in Albania.”
So, the Prime Minister accepted that our country was the only one that didn’t receive any concrete investment during the summit.
A similar situation happened in Albania in 2015, too. In 2015, the online website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the media aired inflated news about the participation of Minister Gjosha in the Regional Conference ADRION, and several appointments with officials of the EU and Italy, the place where the meeting occurred.
Besides the propaganda, there wasn’t any valuable information, so since it was a conference with Balkan participation, I searched for information on the official pages of the neighboring countries.
Serbia had published extended information regarding its projects, the objective of the Conference, and disclosed the official website of the conference for the ones who needed more information. Other countries had followed suit.
Countries and their respective projects were published on the official website of the conference. There were no available proposal from Albania, Minister Gjoshaj held a dull speech regarding the necessity of collaboration and then called on Italy for more investments.
During that year, €100 million were distributed between the participatory countries, with an emphasis on Greece and Montenegro. Our minister had gone for a vacation: delivering only a speech and nothing more.
The same thing happened this year during the Summit of Trieste, where proposals were presented on investment projects, especially in the areas of transport and energy, by participating countries.
From the official news reports it seems that Albania has not presented a project and as a result, financing has gone only to neighboring countries.
To deny the news, the government has manipulated the media to spread bombastic news that we have drawn 30 % of EU investments. Without providing any details, it is easier to dupe anyone.
But they are in fact talking the Western Balkans Investment Framework, which each year approves funding for small projects in Balkan countries.
This year, Albania has profited funds at the value of €3.35 million for four projects.
You have an idea how small this fund is, considering that the project for the Pazari i Ri in Tirana funded by the American-Albanian Development Fund in collaboration with entrepreneurs and the municipality was worth €8 million.
The most interesting fact is the WBIF funds was approved already on June 15, and the distorted news about it was only aired yesterday.
The donation was apparently coming from the EU and it was shown as a denial against the voices circulating in the Summit of Trieste, claiming that Albania had not presented any projects to draw funds for.
The truth is that these events are not related; not only as assisting programs, but they are also different in time and location.
While the summit is taking place in the past days, it has been one month since WBIF Committee approved the humble financial donation in Sweden.
There is an explanation regarding the reason Albania has profited 30% of financing. This is because the neighboring countries are concentrated in drawing large projects.
Our neighbors spend resources, collaborating, contributing and benefiting. Albania puts up shows and speeches and doesn’t make any serious effort to draw in investments.
