Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled the “Albania 2030” program today.
Rama began his presentation with the European passport of Albania 2030, while listing the benefits of every Albanian through this passport.
And to make this a reality, Edi Rama asked for the vote of Albanians on May 11.
He then touched on each sector, listing the new investments that are expected to be completed in the fourth governing mandate of the Socialist Party.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: 4 years ago, here in this sphere, we unveiled the main milestones of the governing program of the third mandate.
It was an extremely difficult time, after a devastating earthquake and in the midst of a pandemic that crisscrossed the entire world.
Dear members of our national team of the 4th mandate!
There are two reasons why I wanted to return here today, to unveil the summit of Albania 2030, by going through the most significant points of the strong historical turning point that Albania has made during our government.
The first reason is that in a moment of reflection and judgment of the sovereign people, such as the time of elections, there is always a need to remember where we started, what we have gone through to get here because only by not forgetting yesterday, we can see tomorrow with clarity.
The second reason is that by developing this communication between us and the public in this way, we not only save time, we save energy, we also save expenses that we would otherwise do all together and if we gathered others here in Tirana, but we also create an environment, I believe, more intimate communication with all those who follow us from home or from their mobile phones.
When I was here with the third mandate team, Albania was hostage to the internal dynamics of the EU and the start of negotiations, which was recommended every year by the European Commission, was opposed and blocked by one country, by two countries, by one country again for reasons that had nothing to do with us, but you know the history; they refused to make the consensus of the European Council.
However, we did not give up for a single day and the disappointment from the arbitrary rejections 3 times in a row of the European Commission’s recommendation for negotiations, turned for years into increased strength to work, work, work, just as if we had opened the negotiations and to progress, following the entire negotiation roadmap, to always be ready as soon as our day came.
On the other hand, we raised the name of Albania higher and higher every year and positioned our national flag internationally, where, no, it had never been, but where it was not even imagined for the sake of truth, up to the United Nations Security Council.
We also built direct communication channels with our international partners in real time, up to the highest levels, reaching, and for this I am very proud, influencing the European Union’s policy towards our region and specifically the New Growth Plan, which brought extra financial support to the countries of the Western Balkans, started here in Tirana from bilateral meetings and was elaborated throughout all contacts, both with Brussels and with the capitals, convincing the key actors of European politics that an extra effort had to be made, while our countries continue the process on the path to membership.
In short, we fought, we endured, and in the end, we deservedly won the long political and diplomatic battle to open membership negotiations, sitting at the table face to face with the European Commission.
And today we are where it was absolutely unimaginable when they took office and when Albania was viewed at best with regret, at most with complete distrust and at worst with contempt. Why are we where it was unimaginable? Not because we opened negotiations, but because today we, Albania, have on the table an agreed plan with the EU to close negotiations for the next two years and for the first time we have in our hands the historic opportunity, the real opportunity, the current opportunity, to enter the European Union, to enter now, within this decade, not in the next decade, because the stars have aligned in our favor.
The star of our destiny has aligned with the stars of Europe’s destiny and I repeat, we have never had this opportunity, because for the first time, it is not only us who want to enter the European Union as soon as possible, but it is also the European Union that seeks to take us into its fold as soon as possible. That is why we are negotiating with extraordinary momentum, a two-way momentum, not just on our part, but also on their part, to close in an absolute record time, considering that we only started the negotiations a year ago; a three-year period, a process that for others has lasted much longer. We need to tell people, we need to put the reality before their eyes and everyone needs to take a moment to consider that Montenegro started the negotiations in 2012, when we were not yet candidates for the European Union, Serbia in 2014, while Macedonia, which also changed its name to join the European Union, imagine, received candidate status in 2005 and has not yet started the negotiations.
We have the historic chance to close them for three years, 2024-2027, but for this we must not waste even a minute, and to deliver a powerful message to the EU: From the Albanian people of May 11, a message beyond the arithmetic majority, we want the EU passport for Albania and for every Albanian and Albanian. A passport for every Albanian is an ambition that, until a few years ago, would have seemed crazy to have on the eve of the elections for the 4th mandate.
This is a passport that is very similar to the one that every Albanian will have in his hand. These are the new security elements of the passport to be part of the European Union, and this is Albanian. Albanian is symbolically the face of passport zero, ‘‘Albania Tirana’’, with Albanian nationality, Albanian citizen, with a European passport. Every time we land at an airport in Italy, Germany, Greece, anywhere else in the EU for 35 years, they point us to a separate corridor where we have to go and get in line like in the old days. Meanwhile, the Europeans who get off the plane or ferry with us quickly pass through another corridor without a line and are out on the other side in the blink of an eye, no longer visible.
We don’t really have visas to move around Europe, but we don’t even have the right to stop in a European Union country. Therefore, when we arrive at the EU borders, there in the queue we are always questioned by a policeman who turns our passports upside down and then asks “Where are you going, how much money do you have with you, who are you with? Who invited you? Do you have a hotel reservation? Where are you going to stay? How long will you stay?”
And then he says that terrible sentence, “when are you leaving?”
This is a story that could go on for a long time, if we do not together finally close it by putting a lid on it so that no one from that flock of our fellow European travelers will separate us, wherever we move within the perimeter of the EU, so that we will no longer have to queue, so that we will no longer have to give an account to a police officer at the airport, because we are entering an EU country. We can provide every Albanian, every Albanian, with the European passport of Albania 2030. Our message is clear. To give them the EU passport, we need, not just a 4th mandate, we need a strong mandate, stronger than the three mandates so far.
Therefore, whoever wants the EU passport, must definitely contribute to Albania entering the EU and the contribution to Albania in the EU is the investment of the vote, there in the center of the ballot paper, where the number 5 is and where the Socialist Party and Edi Rama are written.
No one else – we must make this very clear to everyone – can provide Albanians with an EU passport within this decade. Every fluctuation, every stop, every confusion makes the 2027 deadline burn because a thousand girls and boys, who as we speak today, are in offices and working on negotiations. They have such a busy calendar that every week our two ministers, Majlinda and Adea, who are the Chief Negotiator and Deputy Chief Negotiator, sit in front of the European side and give an account of what was done last week, week by week, week by week.
There are a quarter of a million pages of legislation with regulations, with documentation that must be absorbed in its entirety, while there are also reforms to be deepened, and no one else can deepen them except us.
With the EU passport, Europe becomes as small as Albania and Albania becomes as big as Europe.
With the EU passport, Albanian girls and boys will study at every university in Europe under the same conditions, with the same fees as equal European students and not with extra fees or through narrow quotas as foreign students.
With the EU passport, every Albanian will be able to work without a work permit anywhere, from Stockholm to Lisbon, from Madrid to Warsaw, enjoying the same rights as Swedes in Sweden, Portuguese in Portugal, Poles in Poland, Spaniards in Spain, as well as benefiting from the card, the EU social card to benefit from the social and health insurance of any country where he or she is employed in the European Union.
With the EU passport, visa-free entry to many countries outside the EU, or employment in those countries, will also become much easier. With procedures completely different from those required today for an Albanian man or woman, with an EU passport, Albanians will benefit from the same high standards of protection of individual rights before every institution and before every court, in every EU country, no one will treat them any more as “Come on, more than these Albanians”.
They are equal Europeans among Europeans, from the second they hold an EU passport.
With an EU passport, every Albanian will gain the right to vote, to run in local elections, wherever they live within the EU, and also for the European Parliament, while Albania will also be part of the European elections and will have its representative in the EU government, the European Commission, as well as many boys and girls in the Brussels administration. Keep in mind once again, running in local elections, not by having an Italian or Spanish or German passport, but simply by having an Albanian passport because you are an equal European citizen, is another thing, a political choice that must be made you must have the passport of that country there to be an MP of that country.
With the EU passport, every EU embassy will come to your aid wherever you are, if you don’t have an Albanian embassy nearby. This is a real historical opportunity, an open door. EU membership is there, the EU passport for everyone is there. On May 11, Albanians must give us the mandate and not only give us the mandate, but give a very strong message to all EU countries, give a very strong message to Brussels, by voting massively for EU membership and for the EU passport. Now what is the EU besides a passport? A common market, a space for coexistence. The EU is also a perimeter of values and principles, where individual freedom, equality before the law and democratic standards are the cornerstones of that coexistence.
Well, individual freedom, what we have desired for centuries, what we finally won in Europe, what we have today, but we are never as sure of it as what we will have when we are part of the European Union, where no member state can infringe on individual freedom. What about equality before the law? We have never had it, we have not won it even after we won individual freedom when we were freed from the clutches of the communist dictatorship.
Only today, only in these last years, thanks to the reform in justice, thanks to the path that we, the Socialist Party of Albania and no one else, opened to new justice, Albanians are seeing the first attempt in history to establish equality before the law.
Never before, since 1912, when we became an independent state from the empire, when we created the first government, have we had in any case, an individual connected to political power investigated and tried by an independent body, until, after the justice reform, with the creation of new institutions, this began to happen and it began to happen for the sole reason, because we have voluntarily handed over to justice, with a very clear vision, with an unwavering will and with an equally clear awareness of what this would cost us, the sword, the sword of the lady of justice, who has held that sword since the dawn of democratic times or since the dawn of state times for the world, while in Albania it did not have it until we handed it over.
That sword has been in the office of the first government, since 1912 until I arrived in that office.
It has been passed down hand to hand, regardless of the form of regime, monarchy, communist dictatorship or democracy, democracy with that sword used arbitrarily by the head of government, imprisoned the leader of the opposition, the last political prisoner in the history of Albania, Fatos Nano.
We handed over the sword. Today, that sword is in the hands of SPAK. Today, that scale is in the hands of the Special Court and today we are the only guarantors of this new history, which the swamp owl, together with everyone else around him swear and I swear that they will turn upside down.
They want the vote on May 11, so that on May 12 they can take back the sword and strip the lady of justice of the power to impose equality before the law. But what else is the EU? The EU today, among other things, is also a matter of collective security. Look at this survey, the collective security survey. This is a poll of the popularity of the EU in the member states. The top started with 92, 91, 90, 91, 90, 90, 80 or so percent, etc., etc. and the lowest popularity is 61%.
This popularity of this poll conducted last month, the European Union has never had before, since 1983, when this poll was first conducted.
How is it possible that the people of the European Union, suddenly from the people who began to fall into skepticism, from the people who began to fall into a kind of disappointment, from the people who began to fall into the trap of those who told them to leave the EU, suddenly appear as people who love the EU more than ever because today the EU is also a matter of guaranteeing security, security in the strict sense of the word.
Today, the EU is also an existential issue, in a world where war is no longer a black and white documentary, but a reality at the doors of the EU, in a world where geopolitics is no longer what it was until a few months ago, in a world where the EU is experiencing a great awakening, and Albania, Albanians, has a greater interest than to enter the EU as soon as possible and to be “the good brave with many friends, but in this case a brave with much bigger, much stronger friends, who all together defend the same values, function on the same principles and guarantee common security.
The EU is also a collective benefit, in addition to the individual benefit that I explained, which stems from the passport.
Look at what happened with Croatia. It is exactly what will happen with Albania.
Croatia, until the moment of entering the EU, had extra budget income itself as support from the EU; 126, 141, 151, 156 million, annually, in total in all those years they do not make a single billion. In the total of the years that we have been in power, we have had something more than a billion and a billion in support, 90% loans, 10% forgivable money, so no debt.
Look at what happened to Croatia as soon as it became a member of the European Union.
This will happen to Albania as soon as it becomes a member of the European Union. A billion or so more every year and 90% forgivable money, so grants and only 10% loans, so debt, because in the EU we enter a family that is divided into two parts, contributors and beneficiaries.
The contributors are large countries, they are developed countries, they are France, they are Germany, the Netherlands and so on, which give more financially than they receive, and you need the EU, you need it a lot as a large common market, you need it a lot as a perimeter of values and principles and you need it a lot as a wide development area, while the other group that we will enter with our entry into the EU, are the beneficiaries.
They are the smallest, who in a family are helped by the largest. They are the weakest who in a family are helped by the strongest. And a very simple calculation to close it; if up to now from the EU for agriculture, we have received less in all these years than 200 million euros, much less, we will receive 300 million euros per year for agriculture alone.
But let’s go back to where we are now. When we took office, we faced a pit of hidden debts; to companies engaged in public investments, to suppliers contracted for public services; from medicines to chalk, medicines for hospitals, there were no more medicines in hospitals. 40 million euros was only the debt to supplier companies that no longer delivered medicines. Chalk and schools, there were no chalks in schools, because they no longer delivered suppliers and the threatening public debt was almost 80%.
Today, public debt has decreased below 60 and is 55% today public debt.
So, today with a debt of 55%, we are within the parameters of a normal and serious state in the administration of its finances. And we have no hidden debt to anyone.
In the latest report of the European Union, which does not make political assessments, which does not make electoral assessments, which does not make opposition or government assessments, but makes professional and objective assessments, Albania is considered the country with the best administration of public finances in the region.
Today, we have reduced bad loans from a frightening level, 25% were bad loans in banks, a direct threat to banks at a normal level, less than 5%.
SALARIES
We have tripled the per capita income in three mandates when we took office, the per capita income was 3324 euros, today the per capita income is 10342 euros and in Albania 2030 the per capita income will increase 5-fold compared to where we started and will be 15 thousand euros.
The average salary in the public sector was 372 euros.
Today, in the latest independent assessment made by INSTAT confirmed by international financial organizations, the average salary for 2024 in the public sector was closed at 1 thousand euros, while in Albania 2030, it will be at least 1200 euros.
We increased the average general salary more than 2 and a half times and will increase it by at least 30% more.
This was the average salary.
This is the average salary.
The average salary of the public and private sectors together, that is, the average salary in the Republic of Albania.
This will be the average salary of at least 1 thousand euros.
We continue with the minimum salary in 2013, when we took office, the minimum salary was 157 euros. Today, 2024 closed with the minimum salary of 400 euros and starting from January 2026 with a decision that will be made after the elections when the June normative act will also be made, the minimum salary will be 500 euros.
To support employees who will benefit from this rapid increase in the minimum wage, entrepreneurs will be forced to increase the minimum wage, but we will give them a facility that during the 18 months after the first salary, the state will not ask them for any tax liability on the additional 100 euros.
When they took office, the Gross Domestic Product, the General National Product, everything that Albania produced was 9.6 billion euros, today it is 25 billion euros. We have increased the General Product two and a half times.
Albania 2030 will have a total production of 35 billion euros.
EMPLOYMENT AND PENSIONS
We have reduced the unemployment rate by 40% and from 17.5%, which was in 2014, to below 9%. So, we have achieved the objective of reducing unemployment to a single digit and today it is 8.8 to be exact.
Albania 2030 will have the average European Union rate of 6%.
Now many people mention that 300 thousand jobs. Prepare to answer with the figures in the employee book, in the employee register of the Republic of Albania.
When we took office, Albania had 1 million and 23 thousand employees. When we took office, Albania had 1 million and 23 thousand employees. Today, the number of employees in the 2024 register is 1 million and 327 thousand. So, from 1 of 23 to 1 of 327, are there or are there more than 300 thousand new jobs, so says the register, so says the salaries that are given, so says the income that is received from those salaries.
The average pension, when we took office was only 86 euros, while in 2024 it became 175 euros.
These figures do not help us to say that we are relatively satisfied, as we are relatively satisfied with everything else, but neither do they help us to give a sense of what the fourth term will be like.
Therefore, our ambition is that in Albania, in 2030, the average pension will be 400 euros for all those who have paid full insurance. Meanwhile, the minimum pension for everyone else, we will aim to go to 200 euros, regardless of everything else.
Since taking office, we have signed 16 agreements with other countries for the mutual recognition of pensions, from which hundreds of thousands of compatriots benefit.
We found it with two agreements, with two countries where there were almost no people from Albania claiming pensions, there were, but very symbolic ones.
We closed the agreement with Italy, it is now active. Within the fourth mandate they want to close the agreement with Greece, but – I return to Albania in the European Union, I return to Albania’s European passport, because – upon entering the European Union, I said it before and I repeat, all those in Greece who have problems with pension recognition, receive that red passport with our proud two-headed eagle with the logo of the European Union, the Republic of Albania on top, and it is enough for them to live in Greece as equals, also in terms of pension rights, and their years of work are immediately recognized and they can immediately transfer their pension from there to here, from here to there what they have, etc., etc.
So, we come back to membership, when we took office, this is one of the most flagrant things because again the swamp in all its claims, claims to turn back this fact, which is a fact of which we are all proud as the Socialist and Progressive Party.
Small businesses suffered double taxation and, starting from a turnover of 55 thousand euros, paid 10% tax, 20% VAT, the same as large businesses, there was no difference.
A bakery paid the same as 15 floors, the same.
We not only zeroed the tax, but also increased it from 55 to 140 thousand euros, the ceiling of annual turnover to be considered a small business and removed VAT for all small businesses, with a turnover of up to 100 thousand euros.
We have promised this regime and we will maintain it in the fourth mandate, it will remain unchanged.
Until 2029, Albania will continue to be, not only the only country with zero taxes for small businesses in the region, but also the country with the absolute lowest tax rate in the region for employees, where 93% of all those who receive a salary in the Republic of Albania pay less than 10% of their salaries.
The 15% tax regime for large businesses will remain unchanged, but the fourth mandate will have a novelty.
In the fourth mandate, we will have a fiscal peace negotiated with business, an instrument known since very old times.
I really like this idea and we will propose to business, as of June, a negotiated fiscal peace agreement for a period of 3 years, where 15% of the tax will be paid on the profit aligned with the economic growth rate, while for any additional profit that the business will declare above that rate, only 5% will be taxed.
This is a peace that also means the end of any kind of inspection of businesses, of any kind of control and of any kind of minute spent on controls based on a peace agreement, but this will also bring to light many undeclared incomes for reasons we know that businesses have not declared but in fact also enter into a series of historical debts that they will never have to pay even if they wanted to.
When we took office, Albania exported 2.8 billion euros in total. We increased exports to 8.4 billion in 2024, or three times more.
In support of business, during the fourth mandate, over 2 billion euros extra will be mobilized in the form of loans and guarantees from two banks. The Bank of Albania has begun mobilizing 250 million euros, an innovative financing line that can now be accessed by second-tier banks with a state guarantee on 70% collateral and with a lower interest rate than, starting from less than 3%, but it can go even lower through negotiation.
Meanwhile, from the Development Bank, we finally have our legislation and the long-awaited and much-talked-about development bank will also start its journey, a bank built jointly with “Cassa Depositi e Prestiti”, one of the oldest development banks in Europe, and which will operate with the same model as that bank in Italy.
Meanwhile, another 1 billion euros will be mobilized from the Smart Albania package.
Thanks to this financial mobilization, we will generate about 8 billion euros extra in the economy, as well as create up to 100 thousand new job opportunities, but most importantly for well-paid jobs.
EDUCATION
Average teacher salary. The average teacher salary has doubled compared to the time we took office. It was 420 euros in 2013 and today it is 950 euros.
Meanwhile, in Albania 2030, teachers will have an average salary of 1250 euros.
When we took office, there were zero free textbooks. All parents bought children’s books and I’m not going to go into what kind of books they bought, a jungle.
Today, for years, 238 thousand students receive free school textbooks.
We have built 450 schools, from which 200 thousand students have benefited who today enter and leave schools that lack nothing, not all schools in the European Union, but the best schools in the European Union.
In the fourth mandate, 200 new schools will be added to this necklace.
When we took office, schools did not have laboratories, they had some tired classrooms with some computers that no longer turned on.
Today we have smart laboratories in 340 schools. Within the fourth mandate, the number of smart laboratories will be 1 thousand. We will no longer have a single child in the entire perimeter of the Republic of Albania who will not have access to learning digital technology.
Within the fourth term, each district center municipality will launch a school meal program and will also launch a new after-school program, the After School program, which is a step further on the basis of the community center school, because where there will be food, there will also be the opportunity for parents not to worry about picking up their children from school, leaving work, or finding out where their child is going after school. Yes, we will have clarity about a school stay that will last well beyond school hours.
By 2026, schools will be protected. School safety will be guaranteed with intelligent cameras and the reduction in bullying, absences or copying in class will be drastic. It is a completed project, it is a signed financing and now it is simply the implementation of the project.
During the fourth term, the public school transport company will be established, which will provide free transport for students from home to school and vice versa, and will also end the era of money given for transport going into all sorts of hands, to all sorts of companies, to all sorts of minibuses, to all sorts of vans.
During the fourth term, the number of students in vocational education will double.
60 million euros have been earmarked to be invested in the construction of vocational schools, in the installation of technical laboratories and in the construction or reconstruction of private school dormitories, which will be exemplary dormitories with the best quality for all students who will study in these schools.
The objective is that in Albania 2030, 35% of the total number of students will study in vocational schools.
In Albania 2030, all vocational education students will have special treatment and all families in rural suburbs will be given the opportunity to send their children to the public system, and the public system will take care of them from A to Z.
When we took office, the gyms in the Republic of Albania were counted on the fingers of our hands. Today we have 200 new gyms in schools. We started with gyms from the time when I played basketball, which were counted on the fingers of our hands throughout Albania.
We started with an education system where physical education had disappeared and where sports in schools were non-existent.
The new movement of sports teams in schools has involved over 12 thousand children and adolescents, reviving the spirit of sports in the younger generation, but also laying the foundations for a sustainable development of national sports.
In the fourth mandate, the number of sports disciplines will be increased, municipalities that will move in this direction with priority will be supported, and we aim for at least 20 thousand children and adolescents to be active in the entire chain of sports teams in schools, at least.
When we took office, higher education was financed with less than 70 million euros. We tripled the funding for universities and today they are financed with 200 million euros.
By the end of the fourth mandate, we will also realize the investments of major projects of the University of Tirana, the College of Europe, and we will deepen internationalization through the alliances of our university with those of the EU, making the academic offer even more attractive, not only for local students, but also for European students. Entry into the European Union will also have this direct impact. There is a figure that many of you will probably be surprised to hear, but it is a real figure, it is factual, it is inventoried.
Do you know how many doors of new houses, or repaired, or put into the energy efficiency regime have been opened during our government, 35 thousand doors.
Here, of course, the great impact also comes from the reconstruction after the earthquake.
But, during the fourth mandate, we have decided and calculated and I want to explain clearly that all of these are not empty promises, they are all calculations. Our government program, because this is not an electoral program, it is a government program, has been researched in detail by the team of our Minister of Finance and has received approval in the same way that every budget, every draft budget of every ministry, receives approval before it becomes a draft budget of the government.
We will invest 300 million euros with the aim of 50 thousand keys, 50 thousand doors. On the one hand, for young couples, with a very special program for professionals in fields that have direct public interest and that we want to keep in Albania. We started with doctors, we started with teachers, we started with police officers, we started with the military. We will also deepen this for professionals in the private sector, young professionals and those who want to return from emigration. And on the other hand, we will invest starting from the campus of the University of Durrës in residential university campuses where students will be able to have their own rooms.
HEALTH
When we took office, our health budget was only 250 million euros in total, today it is 760 million euros. Including the budget for social support, which doubled from 130 to 260 million euros, health and social protection receive today, we are talking about 2025, 1 billion euros from the state budget.
We have built or rebuilt from scratch, 400 health centers and ambulances, which were nothing more than a shadow of themselves.
In Albania 2030, all health centers and ambulances will be completely rebuilt, those that are still in the process.
We are the first government, very important, the first since 1990, that we have built new hospitals and we have not built 1 or 2, 53 hospitals, 10 of which did not exist at all, 43 have completely collapsed and have been rebuilt from scratch. Without talking about the equipment that is totally new and without talking about the doctors’ uniforms that are totally different today from what they were in 53. And it is enough to look at each region, you have to look at the history of the hospitals, when they were built and when they were last invested before we came to a government and you will see wonders. The Korça Hospital, which is now about to sign the contract, the start of work has 100 years other hospitals in the 50s, 60s, 70s.
During the fourth mandate, the “Mother Teresa” University Hospital Center, which today has been fundamentally transformed in 90% of its capacity, which today has gained respect and which today is ready to take the next step, will take the next step by creating a synergy with some of the best centers in the world.
We started with the SHEBA University Hospital Center in Israel, ranked 9th in the world, which has taken over the direction of Oncology and has begun intensive work. Even today, as we speak, our doctors, a considerable number of doctors are there in intensive training to turn Oncology from a place where we had a crisis, which hurt us all, into a point of reference to be proud of. And in the meantime, we are in discussions with two other centers and we anticipate very soon having the right partners so that the University Hospital Center, listen carefully, will be the point where Albanians who go abroad to receive hospital services, do not need to, they just go there. And it will be a center that in Albania and 2030 will be the international prestige of Albania for health services.
Since the year we took office, even today, drug prices have decreased by 30% and I asked them to bring some specific drugs that are on the market today and that were on the market and have decreased, why? Because we have made a policy, as we pledged, and in that policy of removing VAT on medicines and some other interventions, we have achieved this reduction. And on the other hand, we have doubled the fund for reimbursable medicines and we have added 200 medications to the list of reimbursable medicines and now, whoever tells you that they will tell you on every street, they will tell you on every street the issue of pensioners in relation to medicines, you should tell them that there are 210 thousand pensioners in the registers, who benefit 100%. 100%, not 99, reimbursable medicines, while 600 thousand citizens who we have carried in the great problem of lack of insurance, continue to receive free services, even though they have not paid health insurance for years.
Yes, the salary of doctors.
When we took office, the salary of doctors was 490 euros, in 2024, this is the average salary of doctors. It speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, in Albania 2030 we want the salary of doctors to reach the ceiling of 2000 euros.
Coming to the salary of nurses, it was also 280 euros in 2013, 850 euros today is three times higher and don’t forget that in all these salaries there is a big difference. Because not all salaries are below 1 thousand euros. Nurses’ salaries, for example, do not have the burden they had. Nurses at 280 euros, gave 10% to the swamp. Nurses at 850 euros pay less than 10% of their salary as tax. What about medical emergencies, what medical emergencies did Albania have when we took office? There were 100 ambulances in inventory, the vast majority of the 100 ambulances had actually not been moved for years, rusted, one wheel sticking out of the side, one wheel on the roof. During this period, we have created a fleet of 320 new ambulances, totally well-equipped, but we have also established an exemplary European standard National Emergency, reducing the arrival time to no more than fifteen minutes and all calls end up immediately in the Emergency Department’s ear, not like in the past when you would pick up the phone and the number was always busy, because the phone hung on that black curl, while the person who was supposed to pick it up was snoring and every call, not only is it received, not only is it responded to, but it is recorded and it is also recorded when the ambulance left and when it arrived.
Do you remember the scandalous story of Pogradec, when it was said about the ambulance, a very big lie that was propagated with all the drums of the swamp and these small marshes, that the delay was 40 or so minutes, and the computer of the National Emergency system showed very clearly that the ambulance had arrived in only seven minutes.
The Check-up program, as much as it has been cursed and muddied by the cursed ones who live in the mud of the swamp, has been desired and praised by all those people who have benefited and the request to continue offering it by increasing the age limit for beneficiaries, which comes to us a lot from pensioners, we will respond positively in the fourth mandate.
SOCIAL PROTECTION
Social protection, we have tripled the budget for economic assistance, we have quadrupled the budget for social care services. When we took office, only large cities offered social protection programs, more than half of the municipalities did not have any programs at all to help the community.
Today, social programs are throughout the territory.
We have financed 84 new social services through the Social Fund and the beneficiaries are not few, they are nearly 50 thousand people and today the social fund is a modern and transformative mechanism that we will undoubtedly continue to strengthen.
Among the social services are those for people and children with different abilities, for the elderly, victims of violence, and so on, and what we want to do is expand the network of services. We also have 40 new services according to the needs in the territory. We will increase access to the active employment program, by creating 20 new social enterprises, where we will employ and support categories in need.
While we have provided special support thanks to the National Advisory for mothers with three children, we must and will provide special support until the fourth term to all children with special abilities, starting with children suffering from autism and all others who are in support programs, but who, considering that they are children, considering what it means for the family, deserve extra support, not simply as a general category of people with disabilities, and this support will be a support that they will begin to receive as early as January of next year.
AGRICULTURE
What about agriculture? 1000 projects have been supported and implemented, as was the objective, where 400 new collection and agro-processing points and 120 agro-tourism supported by us stand out, while the total number thanks to the promotion of this new industry, this new branch of the new tourism industry is around 250.
There are 1000 other projects that we will implement during the fourth mandate and they are projects that we know exactly in which directions and all of you in the regions will have to specifically address.
What about land? When we took office, the surface area of irrigated land was two and a half times smaller than today, so today, – which according to the swamp have all fled Albania, – there are 300 thousand hectares of land that are worked because they are irrigated, – when according to the swamp, they were all here in Albania, – there were only 120 thousand hectares of land.
300 thousand hectares are irrigated and drained today, but another 60 thousand hectares remain to complete the entire project of irrigating every inch of arable solar land in Albania.
What about greenhouses?
In 2024, the surface area of greenhouses exceeded 2 thousand hectares. Exactly 2100 hectares, which is three times more compared to three terms ago, when we took office. Three times more.
Agricultural exports exceeded half a billion euros, four times more than when we took office, four times more. And the trade deficit, because this is very important, the trade deficit was 1 to 9, so one export to 9 import for food.
Today we are 1 to 3, 1 export to 3 import because even in the domestic market we have much more domestic production, but because even in exports we have much more export of domestic production.
The swamps and all the small marshes around them talk and talk and talk about food safety.
When we took office, only 6: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 laboratory analyses of agricultural products were performed.
Today, 1909 types of analyses accredited by the European Union are performed.
During the fourth mandate, we will increase the total value of investments in agriculture to nearly 500 million and we aim to achieve the super-ambitious objective of 1 billion euros in exports.
We have just published, after we have also passed the Parliament, the Mountain Package. Anyone who owns a piece of land and who possesses it in fact, but does not possess it on paper, that is, it is the land of the ancestors, but does not have the regular documentation of ownership, can return from the city to the land of the ancestors, can return from abroad to the land of the ancestors and it is enough to present a document, a simple certificate from the Municipal Council, that he, his family are the possessors, de facto, but not the owners on paper of that land to obtain a development permit and to invest in the mountain economy, agrotourism, trees, processing line, sports center, mountain sports, etc. He obtains the development permit, buys the land for one euro, his own land, he only pays one euro symbolically and at the moment when the investment is finished, he mortgages it, it is his land, even on paper thanks to the investment.
The first 500 applicants in this program, the call will be launched after the elections because we do not want to use it and be used, and they may even call us an electoral crime, because we have made a law that has practically stripped ourselves of everything, simply and only so that when we strip the owl of all its feathers, with all the other feathers of all the marsh birds, they will not say no, if you had this, no if you had that.
So, when we open the call, the first 500 entrepreneurs will be able to benefit from this mountain package, paying 0 tax, 0 VAT for ten years.
So get ready, get ready, the first 500. Zero tax, zero VAT for 10 years, the others will have the regime that agrotourism has today, which is still a very favorable regime, with 5% tax, 6% VAT.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Let’s come to one of our strongest battle horses, which is infrastructure.
Since we took office, we have built 935 kilometers of national roads, including 21 kilometers of bridges and 12 kilometers of tunnels, but I want to emphasize that since we took office, we have continued to work on the remaining roads. The swamps, the swamp owls with drums have opened many construction sites to win votes to knock people’s heads with those 10 thousand phantom kilometers of roads, but not a single road, not a single one, not only have they not finished, but they have not financed it, because they no longer have a problem that a road starts from one government, continues from another government. The problem is that they have not financed it, they have opened it with 5 lek, a road that costs 1 thousand lek and left us with a big hole, from which it took a mandate just to get out of the infrastructure hole.
Today, Corridor 8, the Blue Corridor that we were laughed at when I said is the painter’s corridor.
The painter’s corridor today is a corridor included in the European network, in the flow of European corridors thanks to the Summit that we held here in 2023 with the European Union, we also have Corridor 8, which was not included in the flow of European corridors and in fact, both of them, today are real construction sites, they are real construction sites with completed segments and segments that are under construction, and here are all the segments and both corridors will be completely completed within the fourth mandate, where we will also build 700 kilometers of new roads and to tease the public a little, but in the meantime you will have all these specifics according to the regions. The coastal road, Dhërmi-Saranda, within the fourth mandate will be a tourist road, which will continue from the new Llogara tunnel, to Dhërmi, the long-awaited, much desired and much needed road.
Tirana-Krujë, the Berat-Çorovodë road will be a road of European parameters and standards.
The Lekli Bridge Përmet-Çarshovë, so all will be connected together. Ersekë-Leskovik, Rrëshen Burrelit, Vau i Dejës-Pukë-Fushë Arrëz, the Old Road Tepelenë-Vlora, the Bridge over the Vjosa River-Selenica. Skrapar-Gramsh, Skrapar-Përmet, Gjirokastër-Libohovë, Poliçan-Zagori, as you can see, or the intersection of the Elbasan-Gramsh spas, as you can see, all these segments are segments that no longer connect from point A to point B, but are A-B-C-D and internal arteries are created that greatly facilitate the connection between our tourist cities and when you go to Korça, you will be able to go to Përmet and Gjirokastër without having to turn around and go back to Tirana.
Meanwhile, the first and second phases of the Tirana-Durrës superhighway will be completed by 2026. Kombinat-Ndroq-Plepa will also be completed. Maqellarë-Peshkopia will be completed these days, Qukës-Qafë Plloçë, Berat-Ballaban will be completed this year.
The National Traffic Monitoring Center will enter into operation by 2025.
We will move to another level, we will no longer have policemen on the streets, we will no longer have checkpoints, we will no longer have people coming out of the bushes in uniform, even saying “Stop”, and you don’t know whether to stop or not, because they may not be exactly who they say they are. The goal is for all this infrastructure to be completed. The conviction is that it will be completed, why? Because all of this that I said is financed, it is not drawn, it is financed by the state budget and by funds received from the WBAF, which is the Western Balkans Investment Fund supported by the European Union.
But we will not leave undone what has been missing for all these years. We have the entire railway infrastructure program and specifically we have Rrogozhina-Pogradec, we have Rrogozhina-Vlora. We have Durrës-Prishtina, which is a very ambitious project that we are working on with the Kosovo government, we are in the project phase. We have Vorë –Han i Hotit financed, tendered as a project, together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, we have Sukth -Porto Romano which is a very important project, without taking into account the new port of Durrës.
We have Durrës-Rrogozhina, also part of Corridor 8, Tirana-Rinas-Durrës, which is 80% of the work completed and thanks to all these interventions we practically, not only with roads, but also with railways, enter the railway network of the region; we join Kosovo, we join Montenegro, we join North Macedonia. They inherited them from a previous time and did not have an aggressive “Freedom Democracy” that told people, “Take the railroads and use them to make fences for illegal construction, which is the 8th wonder of the world,” that’s what was said back then.
The new port.
The swamp says that we have committed the great crime of intruding and removing the oldest port in the world from the center of the city. Only a completely closed mind, not to say stupid, a mind that lives in another civilization and lives like that, can say that a commercial port should be in the middle of the city. If it is possible to move it from the middle of the city, the port of Durres, which was in the middle of the city, would have to be moved and if it did nothing there, it would simply have to be picked up, lifted and taken out of the city because it was a cancerous center, except for a pseudo-gate without any conditions to become a gate for Albania 2030.
The new port, the international competition has been opened, will soon start working, the financing is from the Albanian government, it will triple the existing capacities, the potential of the old Port, but above all it will be the heart of a new trade system, creating the possibility of opening two Dry Ports in Pristina and Skopje, and making Albania a reference point in the Mediterranean. On the other hand, the new Port will not only be a commercial port, but will also have its own military wing, the NATO port.
We are very close to finalizing the financial support from NATO.
So, with the military port, Albania exponentially increases its security, having NATO here.
What about the access of Albanian citizens to air flights, do you know how many Albanian citizens had access to air to go? We are talking about citizens here, residents, we are not talking about Albanians in emigration.
In 2013, access to flights was 6%, only 6%. Today, do you know how many Albanian citizens here “where there is no bread to eat, here where everyone is dying of hunger, here where people are being killed in the streets, here, where there are no more people, have taken the plane”? 32%.
So, we have increased access because we have significantly reduced the price of flights and have practically turned Tirana into the airport with the highest growth in Europe, for three years in a row and in the meantime we have left Belgrade behind in terms of passenger numbers. When we took office at that airport, 1.7 million passengers a year were entering and leaving. The year we left behind there were 11 million passengers in Tirana, at the airport.
On May 8, we hope to also perform the inaugural flight of the Vlora airport runway, where the terminal will require some time due to delays in material supplies.
ENERGY
We come to the biggest hole where we found Albania in 2013, energy. 50% of the production that was transmitted to the network was lost, stolen. Today we are at more or less the European average rates and what is most important that everyone should know, for the first time, for the first time, since we took office, an Albanian government has increased production, that is, it has increased the resources and has increased the production capacities of Albania. On the one hand, the resources today are not only hydro, as they were. 10% of the current production of the Republic of Albania is photovoltaic, in 2030, going up to 30% and in the fourth mandate, we will finally, finally, take the position of a sovereign country in energy, we will no longer need to import energy from anyone, on the contrary, we will not only have it for ourselves, but we will be able to export it to others.
Now, when we took office, the total productive power, because this is very important, this was the total productive power of Albania. You remember the swamp, perhaps based on the water itself, promised Albania an energy superpower. Somewhere I caught my ear again in one of those owl uuuus. The promised energy superpower was this, that whole figure above is the first secretary of the secretary, who later became the leader of the opposition party.
Comrade Enver had done that together with the dictatorship. The swamp only added this figure here and added it with a support scheme, so by giving money to the company that built it and the swamp increased production by only 241 MW.
Look, today the production was there when we took it over, so, comrade Enver with comrade Buf, there, here is the result.
So, double production, 3298 MW and here we go in 2030. This will be sovereign Albania and all of this is planned, it is not a dream, it is all on the tables of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure. And there is another thing that comrade Buf did, which is one of the biggest economic crimes committed against Albania and Albanians by those in power, that he took four hydropower plants from the people and gave them to a private company. Nobody does this, this does not happen anywhere. It does not happen, he took them from the people and gave them to a private company and why did he give them to them? In exchange for VAT, he took them from the public system and gave them to a private company, so 50% of comrade Enver’s production was stolen. Meanwhile, today we have, not only double production from what we found from comrade Enver with comrade Buf, but we also have a drastic decrease in losses in the network, while today energy theft is a very rare thing and collection is complete.
The price of energy from February 1, the price of energy for household customers, 1 million and a half, was reduced by 10.5%. 95% of household customers received a price reduction.
WATER
We come to water, because even with water we have to show the facts. The facts that don’t appear on television, the facts that don’t appear on portals, the facts that are covered every day by the mud of the swamp, by the marshes, by all the insects that live on the water of the swamp and then go and park in those, in those haystacks of the television studios.
When we took office, the 24-hour water supply was only in 4 urban areas, no rural areas.
We have closed 2024 with 43 urban areas and 98 rural areas, which are supplied 24 hours a day regularly and by the end of the fourth mandate, we have this situation to address: 16 remaining urban areas, of which 11 are on the construction site today as we speak and 37 rural areas, which means a total coverage of 90% of the perimeter of the Republic 24 hours, while that 10% are very remote points in the mountains, which is impossible and which also exist in other countries.
And regional development, the development of cities, very important, very important for communication with citizens in every region. 2 billion euros, 1200 projects throughout the country, from city centers, urban areas, suburban areas, reconstruction areas, agricultural areas to deep mountain villages.
From all this investment, 100 thousand jobs have been created, so jobs have been provided, jobs have been created.
And there are over 5 thousand new businesses thanks to the extension of these projects in regional, urban and rural infrastructure.
10 billion euros has increased the value of housing in the last ten years.
Albanians have a 10 billion euro higher real estate wealth just from the impact of these investments. There are also some other calculations regarding costs. The cost of movement has been greatly reduced as a result of improving the infrastructure. In all these territories, 30 million euros have been saved every year, just from fuel, fuel costs and vehicle maintenance, while in the coming period, we will continue a lot with projects to reduce energy consumption by housing. 10 million euros have been saved so far, but we can make much greater savings.
TOURISM
We have a lot to talk about tourism. We have a lot to talk about in every region. But those who were used to boasting about 1 million tourists, where tourists counted me and you every time we entered and exited, while we tourists count only those who have another passport, not an Albanian passport, should be shocked by the extraordinary picture of this transformation. Extraordinary. It has grown tenfold. Tenfold.
Albania tourism has become a European trend. 12 million tourists in 2024.
The year has started in January-February, 20% more visitors than January-February of last year. We can go to 20 million without any fear in 2030, but on the other hand we must slow down mass tourism and must focus much more on elite and ecological tourism and we have major projects on the way, projects that will seriously impact the country’s gross national product (GNP).
Tourism contributed much less than 1 billion euros to the economy, today we are almost 5 billion euros in income from tourism alone.
Hotels. There was no real five-star hotel. Stars were manufactured, manufactured by the party. Hotel names were combinations of surnames and nicknames. Today we have over 50 contracts with five-star hotels, all the big brands are interested in coming to Albania. And keep in mind one thing, there has been a very significant number of residents of the Republic of Albania going abroad for vacation or business. And this number is 3 times the number that was. So, residents resident in the Republic of Albania have gone abroad three times more for business tourism. What does this show that they have become poorer or that today they have more opportunities, while within Albania in 2024 979,456 individuals moved for tourism.
All of this is registered. Movements for tourism, unthinkable, unthinkable, unthinkable, not many years ago.
Let’s come to the environment. We also have a lot to say about the environment throughout the territory, but the point I will focus on is increasing the amount of protected area space to 22% of the territory, 22% of the territory, we have a protected area and we have completely new European legislation for protected areas, which we found filled with boils and swamp tumors on all sides and in Albania 2030, our goal is to be a country where waste collection and recycling are not only in line with the EU framework, but are at a different level than what we have today, which is where and where with what we had, but which is insufficient for what we should have.
Coming to the cadastre, a problem that we face, face every day. Within 2026, thanks to our joint financing and that of the European Union, we will finally complete digitalization. Years of work in chaos, in anarchy, in a mess, in a madness that no country in Europe has ever gone through, is not discussed. Likewise, the initial registration. It will all be closed by 2028 and from that moment on everything will be different, transparent and directly readable, whether by the citizen or by business.
Legalizations: 21,750, – because I know this by heart – were on the day we took office, eight years the swamp encouraged illegal construction from all sides and legalized only 21,750.
We have carried out 270,000 legalizations.
270,000 legalizations by the end of 2024 and by 2028 the remaining ones will also be closed. This is the goal.
In culture, we have achieved something very important that greatly affects religious communities.
650 rescue and restoration operations of cultural heritage objects, of course, the vast majority if not all of them are cult objects that were on the verge of extinction. And since we took office, this is also worth noting, we are the first government since the change in the system that has built theaters and built museums. The swamp has built and rebuilt only 1 pavilion, which from a historical pavilion turned into an almost psychiatric ward on the third or fourth floor of the National Museum.
Remove some, insert some, put some wires there with the pretext of persecution means an absurdity, a banality, a shame. We have made 20 theater halls completely new and have built 20 museums, rebuilt or built some of them from scratch. We are today in our 4th mandate with 3 major works, with three major works: the National Gallery, the National Theater and the Great National Museum, all three of which are in different stages of the process, two are on the construction site. The National Museum will soon be on the construction site. Furthermore, an ambition whose time has come is to begin establishing a network of Albanian cultural centers in Italy, Greece, the USA, Germany, England, France, etc., a request that comes from the diaspora and which we want to address jointly with the diaspora, but today we have more opportunities to enter with financing.
DEFENSE
We have increased our investment in the field of defense tenfold. Do you know how much defense was in 2013? It is unbelievable, 28 million euros.
28 million euros, the worst paid army in Europe, besides a badly caught army, also from corruption, from selling places to flee to Afghanistan.
Today it is 280 million euros. Five times the recruitment in the armed forces, today it is the best paid army in the region, with an average salary, I am very proud of this, higher than all other countries in the Western Balkans. We have also just surpassed Serbia in salaries in the army and we aim that within the fourth mandate in Albania 2030, the average salary of the Albanian army and our armed forces will be at the average of NATO armies. Without talking about what we have done in all those thorns, in all those ruins, in all those masquerades that we found in the so-called territory of the Deployment Plan. A thorn that is today a NATO tactical air base. A combat force abandoned on the streets, today with firepower, with a fleet of helicopters, soon, even with a large warship, in addition to the smaller warships that we have, with combat drones. All of these are just the base, they are just the beginning, they are just the beginning of a transformation that has also come as an impetus of the times we live in.
The military industry has begun to lay the foundations to produce ammunition, weapons, combat drones, armored vehicles Made in Albania here, soon all of these will be able to be shown to the citizens of the Republic of Albania.
We will reborn the aviation school. We have made a memorandum of understanding with a very important and powerful international partner and within 2028, we will also have the modern campus of the Armed Forces Academy in Tirana, where construction has begun, a part of which we have even shown to the public.
The naval fleet of the Republic of Albania, as I said, will have a super ship soon and will be made up of three new warships. Our air fleet will have at its disposal this summer, starting from this summer, agreements have been made for two firefighting aircraft available on standby for us, unexpectedly coming from one country or another.
When the Ministry of Internal Affairs took office, fatal road accidents were twice the European average. Today we are better than Serbia, than Montenegro and than some countries in the region that are members of the EU such as Romania and Bulgaria. We still have work to do for the European Union average, but we are much better. The fact is that 13 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants when we took office, today we have reduced it to 7 per 100,000. Although the number of vehicles in circulation has more than doubled. And the risk of death in an accident has decreased by 75%, which shows that we have made significant progress in this direction.
With the large center, where the Formula 1 circuit will also be located, but where in fact the main element of the center will be road safety, we will also raise road safety to the average of the European Union, without question.
ORDER
Let’s get to the point, the number of victims, as a result of intentional homicide, has decreased two and a half times since we took office, two and a half times. We had 3.8, almost 4 killed per 100 thousand inhabitants, we have 1, something per 100 thousand inhabitants. And it is important that within 2026, every Albanian citizen will be equipped with a digital identity card, which will be at the same time, with the preparations that the European Union is also making for the European Digital Identity Card.
Within 2026, the 12 cities in the district center will be included in the monitoring program with intelligent cameras that will raise the integrated security network to a completely different level, like never before, by increasing prevention, speeding up the reaction time to perpetrators and their identification.
I spoke about justice, but on the other hand we have justice for all, not simply justice as a fight against corruption at high levels and here we plan to have a periodic amnesty for women and minors. And also, we are very committed to an innovative project that is becoming the first model in the region, the construction of an institute for minors in conflict with the law, no longer just a prison for minors, but an innovative model that is based on education, based on reintegration and places Albania in a vanguard position in the European Union, where France and some other countries are experimenting with this model with great success.
We also aim to finally digitalize the justice system. We hope for the cooperation of the independent judiciary so that we can have a transformation in the efficiency of the justice system when it comes to citizens.
I believe you have a lot to talk about regarding foreign policy, but I want to focus on what are the direct benefits of emigrants from Albanian countries living abroad.
They had zero online services, today they have 52 services that they receive without moving from the country at all outside the borders. And on the other hand, without counting here, the great reduction in costs and the saving of energy and stress in receiving these services.
Today Albanians travel to 126 countries without a visa. We have signed 11 agreements for the recognition and conversion of the Albanian license, but here again it comes to the passport in the EU. With the passport in the EU, there is no longer any discussion that the license is the same. And it concludes with general services, the fight against petty corruption, facilitating citizens’ access to services, the removal of counters where all the mini-dramas of Albanian society took place and from a handful of online services, when we took office, today there are 1252 of them.
Last year alone, just last year, through a platform like e-Albania, we have offered 15.2 million services, or five times the number of 2019, when e-Albania took off thanks to the fact that COVID fell and people turned to e-Albania.
Thanks to this transformation based on the international audit that we conducted of e-Albania, 620 million euros have been saved from the pockets of citizens, 33 million euros have been saved from immigrants, thanks to e-Albania.
If it weren’t for e-Albania, 620 million euros would have gone to receive these services. The time saved, the time that has been saved, for all those who have received services from e-Albania is the equivalent of 25 thousand orbits around the earth and 75.5 million sheets of paper have been saved and as a result, a considerable number of trees have not been cut down and eaten by bureaucracy.
So, with these, I believe I can stop here. It is the general panorama, the key points of the summit of Albania, 2030, it is the necessary call to memory of where we started and it is also absolutely the guarantee that by voting for the Socialist Party, by voting for all our teams in the districts, by voting for our national team, every Albanian and every Albanian beyond political beliefs, beyond the colors of the party’s jersey that they support, makes a safe investment to join Albania in the European Union and to obtain Albania’s European passport. Thank you very much and strength, strength, strength!
