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Management of Kukës Airport Awarded to Consortium With No Experience

European Commission “Fights” Corruption in Albania, While Refusing to Address Its Own

It has become a common sight on the social media feeds of the Eurocrats that visit Albania or are stationed in its mission to post frequently about the anti-corruption „initiatives,“ „conversations,“ and „projects“ they have with the Albanian government. Also the justice reform, produced by the now infamous black box of EURALIUS, is an attempt…

A working arrangement was then signed with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) this week, to step up their work to prevent drug trafficking and drug-related crime.

All of this is the result of the European Commission’s delusion that corruption can be addressed by collaborating with a political class soaked in corruption, as public tender after concession after appointment shows.

Worse, however, than the delusion that corruption can be addressed through top-down imposed legislation drafted by bureaucrats with very little stake in or connection to the reality they are claiming to shape, is the stunning hypocrisy with which the European Commission deals with the corruption, intransparency, malpractice in its own ranks.

Rather than providing openness about how the residence of the Head of the EU Delegation ended up in a compound built by Albania’s richest oligarch, with former US Ambassador Donald Lu’s symbol of judiciary corruption, Gjin Gjoni, as its neighbor, the Commission stonewalled systematically all freedom of information requests, failing to provide openness about the tender procedure, which, according to the available material, seemed a classic example of rigged procurement.

Also when it came to the maladministration of EU IPA funds, the EU Delegation in Tirana failed to address its deficient internal mechanisms. After an external audit had previously found maladministration during the years 1996–2001, later EU Ombudsman cases found several other instances. More recently, several other projects funded under the same IPA funds turned out to be complete failures.

But perhaps the clearest indication that the European Commission doesn’t practice what it preaches with all the haughtiness of an old-fashioned schoolmaster, is a recent decision of the EU Ombudsman regarding the appointment of one of the most influential Eurocrats, Secretary-General of the European Commission Martin Selmayr.

The EU Ombudsman concludes quite clearly: “Mr Selmayr’s appointment did not follow EU law, in letter or spirit, and did not follow the Commission’s own rules.” Even though the European Parliament denounced the appointment, even though the EU Ombudsman released several damning findings, even though EU Parliament passed a resolution insisting that Selmayr should resign… Selmayr continues to be at his post……

Organised crime, rampant corruption, and an ineffectual judicial system have posed a significant problem to the country’s desire to join the European Union. As recently as this week, MEPs noted that the rule of law is “backsliding” in the country, following on from the US State Departments concerns that were raised in their annual Human Rights Report.

In October 2018, the country signed an agreement with Eurojust to increase judicial cooperation in the fight against mafia groups operating in the Western Balkans. Between January 2015 and September 2018, some 200 cases of fraud, contract killings, drug trafficking and other crimes were recorded and Albania has been involved in a total of 26 international investigations into similar crimes.