By Eduard Zaloshnja
From March 1992 until today, EU accession has been a major and strategic goal for each Albanian government. However, the delivery of this goal depends on the job that Albanian governments have done and are doing and on the political and geo-strategic developments in Europe and beyond. But at least, every government has done and must do something to make the country more European, in order to be closer to Europe.
Based on the hearings that Edi Rama organized with the “people” and the presentation of the administration reform at the SP’s National Assembly, it seems that the modernization of the administration will be the new government’s piece of resistance. The word “bribe” and the phenomenon that it represents (widely spread in the former territory of the Ottoman Empire, but not in the territory of the EU), seems to be the biggest “enemy” that Rama is pledging that he will fight hard in the next four years.
But the results of this “war” are not that easy to measure. At the end of Rama’s government term in office, an opinion poll may be carried out on this phenomenon, but its results may be biased. From my experience with opinion polls, I have noticed that the respondents who have voted for the government have a tendency to see things with optimism, while those who have voted the opposition, with pessimism.
However, some things are easily measured and observed. Let’s go through them:
- The law which bans smoking in closed public premises has been passed since 2007, but it started to be applied in a rigorous manner after 2013. Now, Albanian bars no longer look like the coffee shops of Kandahar (filled with tobacco smoke), but every now and then, one can see that in some bars, smoking is still permitted. Will this law be fully enforced until 2021?
- Until 2013, it rarely happened for shops or bars to issue VAT receipt (as it happens in many former third world countries). And those tens of thousands of shops and bars acted as the perfect ground for tax evasion on a massive scale (when receipts are issued, the scheme for the collection of VAT and tax on profit is fully functional, starting with the biggest businesses and ending with the smallest ones). After Rama 1 launched its campaign to enforce the issuing of VAT receipts, then more and more shops started to issue them. Meanwhile, no subsidy scheme was ever applied for small shops and bars. Recently, VAT receipts seem to have been forgotten. Will the use of VAT receipts be the same as in Europe until 2021?
- In the past, when someone put the seatbelt on in Albania, he was mocked by the others. After the enforcement of the road code and police campaign for its application, the use of seat belts has become more frequent among road users and passengers alike. Will there be a universal use until 2021?
- One often sees wastes of all kinds on the side of the roads or near rivers of the country. Will there be sufficient landfills and incinerators until 2021, in order to have a place where wastes are sent/selected/destroyed?
- Until 2013, 50% of households and businesses stole or didn’t pay their power supply (a problem similar to the one that undeveloped African countries have). In the past three years, theft of power supply has reduced, while subsidies for households who are not able to afford it have increased. Will power supply be paid by almost 100% of consumers (as it happens in European countries) until 2021?
- Up until today, only 50% of the drinking water which is consumed, is paid. Will this be put to an end by building a good subsidy scheme for families in need until 2021?
- Starting from 2014, sidewalks were freed from illegal constructions. But new extensions, less solid this time, have started to invade them again. Will the sidewalks of Albania become similar to the European ones until 2021?
- During the past two decades, hundreds of kilometers of roads have been constructed and asphalted in Albania. However, when one travels from Tirana to Vlora or Gjirokastra, when driving through the road linking Fier to Levan, one sees that this road is the same as a road in Afghanistan. If one travels from Tirana to Kosovo, one must go through a real nightmare from Kamza to Thumana. Meanwhile, to reach Elbasan, one still needs to drive in both the new and the old winding road. Will the main road segments of the country have European standards until 2021?
- In the past decade, the Albanian university system has mainly functioned as a plant producing diplomas. A student who may have wanted to study engineering, may have ended up studying literature as a result of an automatic algorithm of the Ministry of Education, which selects one among ten possible subjects for the applicant. Will students be able to study what they want and deserve, regardless of the financial status of their family, until 2021?
- The “check-up” project was a fantastic European idea, but its implementation has been very poor so far. Will people have faith on this project until 2021, in order for all Albanians from the age of 40 to the age of 70 to have a check-up each year (like the majority of Europeans do)?
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
