Our Man in Tirana

If President Moisiu's public address yesterday expressed the ideal, the recently released report from the OSCE on the forthcoming local elections named the reality. The 2005 Parliamentary elections in Albania confirmed a consistent trend towards improvement in the conduct of elections and the electoral framework, and Albania witnessed a peaceful and orderly handover of power in September 2005 between the Socialist Party (SP) and the Democratic Party (DP). Yet, the political dialogue between the ruling coalition and the opposition has since been strained by an increasingly polarised atmosphere, lack of trust, and displays of acrimony between the respective political party leadership. This situation has impacted upon electoral reform efforts, and indeed preparations for the upcoming local elections. While there was apparent agreement among political forces to implement recommendations following the publication of the OSCE/ODIHR Final Report on the 2005 parliamentary elections, su...

Today is Albania's National Day, known here as Flag Day. Congratulations and greetings to Albanian readers everywhere. Congratulations also from the Philippines , Jordan , Azerbaijan and New Zealand . Jeff, a missionary in Kosovo, discusses the Albanian national flag , especially as it related to Kosovo. President Moisiu gave a public address at Vlora. This is part of what he said: I have said and I am repeating it again: there are many political parties, but Albania is only one. All the citizens, regardless of the political convictions and pertinences, when found in front of Albania and its interest are Albanians and must be like one and united. The ninety-four years of the Albanian state make up a path which has been open by cutting through numerous hardships. We have gone through happy and bitter days, although today we have all the reasons to feel proud with the Rule of Law and democracy which regardless of the shortcomings are being strengthened and consolidated day by da...

Yesterday's Boston Globe ran an article on the US Peace Corps featuring Ray Grzybowski who is based in Berat.

Like all growing cities Tirana is expanding upwards. For the most part, the new buildings are unimaginative boxes of steel, glass and concrete. Even those attempts at breaking away from the predictable have only resulted in buildings that are either ugly - the Twin Towers - or really ugly - the Sheraton. Only the recently opened European Trade Center represents an improvement. Over the months I have watched as another new building has gradually taken shape in the city. On one level it is yet another utilitarian office block, with the usual look - slabs of glass and concrete - and from a distance it is entirely unremarkable. Up close, though, it is much more striking. The architects have achieved this effect by adding wings or fins - I'm not sure what to call them - in different colours around the outside of the building. The closer you get, and the more you have to look up, the more striking the effect becomes. It's a nice idea, and it's good to see more imaginative develop...

Having visited one of the major hospitals in Tirana a little while ago I was interested in this report from the World Bank that was published earlier this year. The report paints a grim picture of the state of Albania's health care sector and outlines the kind of reforms needed to raise it to an acceptable level.

So it seems that there might at last be a date for Albania's municipal elections. Under the constitution, elections are supposed to take place from 30 to 60 days after the end of the existing mandate. This means that elections should be held between 20 December and 20 January. Unfortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly, the government and opposition have been unable to agree on a date. The Socialist opposition has been pushing for a date in the spring, claiming that bad weather in January might disrupt turn out in rural or mountainous areas of the country. This is true, but they can hardly blame the government for the weather. In the absence of agreement, the President has stepped in and is proposing two possible dates in January - 14th and 21st. The Socialists have indicated that they will drop their objections and accept the President's decision - though it is hard to see what choice they have. As well as seats in Albania's municipalities, the position of Mayor of Tira...

I don't have any opinions about anything today, so here is a nice picture of Bella enjoying the sunshine.

Yesterday's Scotsman carried a Reuters story about Skender Prushi from Lac who owns a miniature copy of the Koran. Those who want to handle the little book have to wash their hands in raki first. The National Examiner has a story about Rubena Sukaj, an Albanian volleyball player, now playing in the US. Thanks again to Stephen Tanghe who drew my attention to a couple of pieces from the New Yorker . The first is a short story by Kadare , 'The Albanian Writers' Union as Mirrored by a Woman', and the second is an interview with Kadare . Stephen also supplied a link to a series of articles on Albania from the Atlantic Monthly , published over a thirty year period from 1963-1993. Unfortunately, a subscription is required to view these articles, but local libraries may have access. Finally, Paddie Holdsworth sent me a piece on Kruja that she wrote for the Yorkshire Gazette & Herald .

Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, has featured before on this blog. Two articles of his are listed in my Albania in the Media post and offer a positive view of the country: What country has Roman and Greek ruins, a stretch of Mediterranean coast yet to be discovered by international tourism, a beautiful old mountain town with UNESCO World Heritage status, good food, wine and beer, a buzzing entertainment district in the capital city? It seems that his reflections on Albania and a group of other countries are about to appear in book form, but if I were an Albanian I'm not sure I would be entirely happy at the prospect. The book, due for publication in April 2007, is not mentioned on the Lonely Planet website but it is available for pre-order on amazon.com where I found the details and the cover image. It's called Bad Land...

Following the OSCE's critical report on the criminal justice system, the President, Alfred Moisu, met with representatives of the National Judicial Conference, the High Justice Council and the Supreme Court. The meeting resulted in the establishment of a working group to coordinate progress in implementing the reforms called for by the OSCE. Media sources in Bulgaria reported that the European Parliament's rapporteur for the country was calling on the EU to delay their demand for the closure of Bulgaria's elderly nuclear reactors in order to head off a potential energy crisis in the region. The rapporteur, Geoffrey van Orden, denied this , claiming that his call for 'flexibility' did not imply keeping the reactors running. EC Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini issued a...

Albanian friends tell me of the difficulties involved in obtaining a visa to travel almost anywhere in the European Union. The process is expensive and complicated and often it seems that the presumption is against granting visas. It is easy to understand why the process creates much frustration and resentment. More than three years ago the EU's External Relations Council at its meeting in Thessaloniki produced The Thessaloniki Agenda for the Western Balkans: moving towards European Integration . This document recognised the importance of visa liberalisation as an issue in the Balkans, but stated that progress was dependent on reform in 'areas such as the strengthening of the rule of law, combating organised crime, corruption and illegal migration, and strengthening their administrative capacity in border control and security of documents.' The EU Council meeting at Thessaloniki endorsed this paper referring to the 'privileged relations between the EU and the Western ...

I have added a number of new articles to my earlier posting on Albania in the Media. I have listed the articles published in the Albania issue of Balkan Insight noted in an earlier post and a number of reports from the BBC from 2005 sent to me by Stephen Tanghe.

Another day, another report again. This time it is the European Commission's much leaked Enlargement Strategy and Progress Reports 2006 . As usual with the EU it's a lengthy piece of work, but the key sections for Albania can be found in two places. The Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2006-2007 contains, among much else, the conclusions regarding candidate countries. Those concerning Albania can be found on pp 22-26. The Progress Report on Albania on which the conclusions are based runs to 47 pages and covers political and economic matters and Albania's capacity to meet a range of European standards. In an accompanying press release the Commission presents its key findings for each country. These are the key finding for Albania: ALBANIA Albania signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU on 12 June 2006. Signing this agreement represented an important step forward on Albania's EU path. Albania now faces the challenge of successfully...

Today's report comes from Transparency International . I mentioned last year's Corruption Perceptions Index in an earlier post , and on Monday this year's CPI was released. The good news is that Albania's position in the CPI has improved. The 2005 Index placed Albania 126th with a score of 2.4 out of a maximum of 10. The 2006 Index has the country in 111th place with a score of 2.6. The bad news is that Albania still ranks as the country with the highest perceived level of corruption in the Balkans, and the the second highest level in the whole of Europe, ahead only of Belarus. (Russia is also perceived as more corrupt, but whether it counts as Europe is another matter).

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network focuses on Albania in Issue 57 of Balkan Insight published last week.

The OSCE released a new report on the state of Albania's criminal justice system on Friday. The full report runs to nearly 250 pages, but the summary of the findings are hardly encouraging: The Albanian justice system has undergone radical changes and a significant improvement during the past decade or so. The present analysis, however, indicates that there is a need for further improvement in order to create a stable and transparent justice system based on the rule of law. As will be seen in both the case studies chapter and in the other chapters in this report, the legal rules are frequently not respected or are abused in order to achieve “desired” – but not necessary lawful – results. As a consequence, the rights and freedoms of individuals are frequently violated, and an impression of a justice system that is neither fair, nor independent, is created. I think this comes under the category of 'damned with faint praise'. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that a forthcoming re...

Peter Preston, former editor of the Guardian, revisits AA Gill's scurrilous commentary on Albania in his latest article on the Guardian website. The article, How Funny Foreigners Are , is Preston's response to the newly released film featuring Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist. I only recently discovered that Borat began life as Kristo - an Albanian .

It seems that we are in for more long blackouts this winter. Last winter the power was off for 10-12 hours most days and KESH, the Albanian utility that manages the electricity system, and the government had been hoping that things would be better this year. Since, in the short term, Albania cannot boost its own generation of electricity, the plan was to buy it from other countries. Now it turns out that one of the major exporters, Bulgaria, is no longer in a position to help. The EU has insisted, as a condition of Bulgaria's accession, that the country decommission two Soviet era nuclear reactors at its Kozloduy plant. According to Hotnews.ro , a Romanian news agency, the closure of Kozloduy III and IV will drain about 40 per cent of the pool of electricity that Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo use to cover their energy deficits. With less electricity on the market, competition for supplies will increase and prices will rise. The result is that, even if Albania does man...

Over the past year I have linked to a number of articles on Albania published around the world. I thought it might be a good idea to list them all in one place. I have checked all the links and removed those that are no longer working. The first section lists a series of feature articles on Tirana and Albania, including the now infamous contribution from AA Gill. On Tirana: Simon Calder 'This is One East European Capital the Stags Might Want to Give a Miss' The Independent 25 March 2006 Christopher Winner 'Tirana Gets Real' The American June 2006 Matt Gross 'A Capital Full of Contradictions' New York Times 9 July 2006 On Albania: Paul Mansfield 'Albania Steps in From the Cold' The Observer 9 April 2006 Will Hide 'Albania: Europe's Last Secret' The Times 15 April 2006 Tony Wheeler 'Albania: Europe's Last Forgotten Corner' Lonely Planet 9 May 2006 AA Gill 'The Land that Time Forgot' The Sunday Times 23 July 2006 Raymo...

Dealing with the past is never easy in communist regimes which systematically recruited huge numbers of citizens and turned them into informers against their own families and neighbours. One of the ways in which post-communist states of Central Europe have tried to deal with this is through the process of lustration. This can involve a number of different processes. Former functionaries of the communist regimes might be named publicly. Since these people often maintained positions of importance after the transition from communism, simply being identified could make their positions untenable. In other cases, these individuals would be banned from holding public office as elected representatives, or as civil servants, or in the armed forces, or the police force. Linked to the process of lustration has been the practice of opening the files of the former regimes that identify those who 'collaborated' and those who were guilty of what where - in the post-communist context - crimes....