Metal firm Ferronikeli, one of Kosovo’s biggest companies, is importing lignite from the other side of the world because it cannot access the country’s rich reserves of brown coal.

Balkan Insight has discovered that the ferronickel exporter has been forced to sign deals with Malaysia and Indonesia to import lignite to its plant in Drenas.

Kosovo has about 14,700 million tonnes of unexploited lignite, worth some 120 billion euro, which is estimated to be the fifth largest reserve of brown coal on the planet.

But Kosovo’s current mines are soon to run out of coal and Ferronikeli, which was bought in 2007 by IMR/Alferon as part of Kosovo’s privatisation programme, complains that the lignite which is available cannot be used.

Arten Bajrushi, spokesman for Ferronikeli, told Balkan Insight: “Even early on, and still today, we have imported lignite from other countries of the world. We have agreements with Indonesia and Malaysia to import lignite.”

He added that only a very small amount of lignite is taken from KEK, Kosovo’s national energy provider, because the publicly owned firm cannot provide enough lignite, and that the coal it can provide is ‘too wet’ for Ferronikeli to use.

Bajrushi said: “Lignite that KEK uses for electricity is 38 per cent wet, while for our technological processes lignite needs to be only 18 per cent wet.

“This issue was supposed to be solved by a drying facility that KEK does have, but it does not work most of the time,” said Bajrushi.

He added that KEK’s organisational problems mean that it is cheaper for his firm to import coal from thousands of kilometres away rather than buy it in Kosovo.

Transporting from South East Asia remains cheaper, even though coal is shipped to Greece, as Albania and Montenegro do not have the capacity to take large cargo.

“The ports of Albania can only take 10,000 tonnes of coal, while the Greek ports can take 50,000 tonnes of coal, of which 10,000 goes to Ferronikeli and the rest is taken by other companies,” said Bajrushi.

He hopes that with the privatisation of KEK, the situation will improve, as currently only KEK has the right to sources of energy.

But officials at KEK told Balkan Insight that it does not have the right to sell lignite. According to Viktor Buzhala, KEK Spokesman, only Kosovacoal KC, a subsidiary of KEK, has the right to sell lignite.

He refused to comment on why the drying facility doesn’t work, pointing Balkan Insight towards KosovaCoal. No officials at the firm responded to questions.

Kosovo is currently using just 2 per cent of its coal stocks at the Mirash and Bardhi mines, which are soon to be exhausted.

Economic experts believe that Kosovo must quickly open new lignite mines, which would be able to supply Ferronikeli and other firms.

Azem Rexhaj, who is executive director of the Independent Commission of Mines and Minerals, ICMM, said: “There are two options for Ferronikeli to receive its lignite from Kosovo – one is for it to be supplied by KEK, and the other is for Kosovo to open a new lignite mine.

“Kosovo’s lignite is good enough quality to suit Ferronikeli. This can be seen by the fact that between 1985 and the beginning of the war, Ferronikeli used this type of lignite,” said Rexhaj.

He urged the government to take the necessary measures to open a new lignite mine.

“With the opening of a new mine, we will have the opportunity to extract sufficient lignite, will also create new jobs and will stop the import of lignite that wastes several million euros a year,” said Rexhaj.

Lignite reserves are plentiful in the Dugagjini and Drenica area of Kosovo, near the Ferronikeli plant, and can easily be exploited, he added.

Kosovo’s government has decided to deal with the situation by opening the Sibovc mine, which can supply coal for 40 years.

“Workers are moving fast to make the opening of the mine happen. We think that our first coal from this mine will arrive in the middle of next year,” said Arben Gjukaj, Managing Director of KEK.

The new mine is being opened to supply Kosovo’s new power station, Kosova e Re, which has been dogged by delays.

It is not known whether coal from this mine will be supplied to Ferronikeli or when the drying facility will begin to work again.Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

With the exception of Montengro, there appears to have been little impact on the fight against corruption despite actions taken to tackle the problem and promises by heads of government to cut corruption in the run-up to EU membership, the survey shows.

The index showed that Croatia is considered as the least corrupt country in the region, ranked in 66th place, followed by Montenegro at 69th, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia tied at 71th, Serbia at 83th, Albania at 95th and Bosnia ranked 99th.

Last year’s index showed these countries at a comparable position, with some countries actually slipping. Only Montenegro increased its ranking by a margin of more than ten, rising from 85th place in the 2008 survey. Albania fell from 85th place, and Croatia slipped from 62nd place in 2008.

“Stemming corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well performing judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil society,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International in a statement released with the report on Tuesday.

The vast majority of the 180 countries included in the 2009 index score below five on a scale starting at zero, where zero is perceived to be highly corrupt, to 10 – where a country is perceived to have low levels of corruption. The CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on some of 13 different expert and business surveys.

Commenting on the report, Transparency International’s Bosnia representative Emir Djikic told journalists; “Bosnia enters the period of dangerous uncertainty, and corruption becomes a dominant problem that endangers implementation of overall reforms.”

“It is essential to implement necessary anti-corruption laws as soon as possible, and to begin with their implementation in order for Bosnia to be able to compete with other countries in the region,” Djikic said describing the current processing of corruption in Bosnia as “absolutely unsatisfactory”.

Another report released last week by the European Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry on the Western Balkans also points out the lack of progress in the region, noting that failure to tackle corruption is hindering foreign direct investments.

“Two factors above all hinder the establishment of a healthy environment for FDI (foreign direct investment) in the region. The first one relates to existing corruption practices and the second to the uncertainty or unpredictability of the legal and regulatory framework,” notes the report, which is co-financed by the European Commission.

According to a survey presented in the report, 52 per cent of entrepreneurs in the region remain dissatisfied with the existing legal framework in their country, claiming that it does not prove a reliable tool for resolving disputes between their businesses and public authorities.

“In spite of an increasingly positive appraisal of the overall climate for FDI in the region, significant gaps remain between the current situation and the potential for investments,” the document stresses.  Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

Tirana, Pristina and Skopje | 20 October 2009 | By Arjan Konomi
Following decades of enforced separation, Albanians are discussing how different they’ve become.

Read the article in Albanian

On a hot summer’s day, a group of friends is sitting in a seaside cafe in southern Albania. Erleta, the daughter of a dissident in Kosovo, and Tomi, a native of Tirana, have much in common.

However, as is usual in the Balkans, they are divided when discussing the past. Tomi believes the former communist regime in Albania was far more oppressive than Josip Tito’s regime in Yugoslavia. Erleta disagrees.

Poverty and hunger were routine in communist Albania, Tomi adds, while people in Kosovo could own property, practice their religion and emigrate to the West, if they wished.

However, Erleta insists that oppression cannot be measured in terms of material goods alone. “Try enjoying a table full of food while somebody is striking you in the face,” she replies, searching for a metaphor to convey the oppression that Albanians felt they experienced in Kosovo. “And don’t refer to us as Kosovars,” she adds. “We too are Albanians”.

The two friends’ heated dispute is a reminder of the fact that, while all Albanians supported Kosovo’s revolt against Serbian rule, Kosovo’s independence since 2008 has thrown up questions concerning the new state’s identity, and about whether it differs from Albania’s.

Some see the attempt to promote a specific Kosovar identity as imposed and invented and reject it as artificial. Others feel more positive. Either way, the question is a hot topic in Pristina, Tirana and Skopje, among intellectuals, politicians and ordinary people alike.

Divided by borders

The origins of the questions concerning Kosovo’s identity date back to the Balkan War of 1912, when Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria overran the last remaining swathe of Ottoman-ruled territory in the Balkans.

The result of the London Peace Conference of 1913 was the partition of Macedonia between the victors and the creation of an independent Albania.

However, almost half of the region’s ethnic Albanian population was left out of the new country after Serbia annexed Kosovo and what is now the Republic of Macedonia.

Though still united by a common language and heritage, a state border now divided Albanians in Albania and Albanians in Kosovo.

After the Second World War, the border became firmer still. The two states in which Albanians lived now followed very different ideologies, with Albania sticking to a hard-line Stalinist philosophy. From 1948 until 1991, the border between Yugoslavia and Albania was almost hermetically sealed.

Even after Yugoslavia collapsed, during Slobodan Milosevic’s rule in Serbia, Kosovo Albanians could not easily cross the border. As a result, Albanians on both sides of the frontier had few chances to communicate, for almost half a century.

In Albania, the isolationist regime of Enver Hoxha also did its best to wipe out most aspects of traditional Albanian culture. Most of the population lived in material deprivation, left wanting for the most basic goods.

Robert Elsie, a former German diplomat and long-time Balkan observer, maintains that, although Kosovo was the poorest region of the former Yugoslavia, it enjoyed modest prosperity when compared to Albania.

However, Kosovo Albanians experienced constant political and cultural oppression from Belgrade. One result was that they tended to withdraw into themselves as a community, remaining more traditional in culture than Albanians in Albania.

Paradise is on the other side

For most Kosovo Albanians who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, Albania was a proletarian paradise, known only by the propaganda images beamed out by Hoxha’s regime.

“We saw Albania as the land of our dreams […] because it was an independent country and wasn’t ruled by others, like us and the Serbs,” says Sefer from Pristina.

He spent most of the 1990s in exile running an Albanian club on the outskirts of Lyon, France, and publishing a magazine, The Road To Freedom.

“What we knew of Albania was the propaganda that the regime broadcast on Radio Tirana,” he recalled. “It was an independent state, free from Russian or American influence, where a free people raised its own flag.

“When my friends in Kosovo first travelled to Albania in the early 1990s, they used to kiss the ground,” he added.

Sefer’s magazine praised Hoxha as a ‘great patriot’. He says his eyes were not fully opened until the late 1990s, when he ended up in Albania as a refugee.

“We only became familiar with the real Albania during the 1999 exodus, when over 600,000 of us found refuge [in Albania] and saw with our own eyes the misery of our dreamland,” he recalled.

“As we recognised each other, we understood better that we didn’t really know each other at all.”

The Kosovo Albanians were not the only ones to labour under misconceptions concerning their ethnic kith and kin. Albanians in Albania cherished similar illusions about their cousins on the other side of the border.

“We considered them [Kosovo Albanians] lucky because, economically, they were much more prosperous than us,” recalls Julian. His family originated from Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, but he was born and raised in a village close to Fier, in central Albania.

Julian’s family had moved to Albania after the Second World War to escape from Serbian repression, but felt the Albanian communist regime treated them even more harshly than the Serbs had done.

“We couldn’t move from the village, let alone go to a European metropolis like people in the former Yugoslavia could,” Julian recalls. “They also had religious freedom [in Kosovo] while my mother had to prepare her Eid cookies in secret because, if they were discovered, we would suffer the consequences.”

At one point, Julian’s family was sent to an internment camp in a poor and swampy area known as Derrmenas. One of his uncles was executed as a political dissident. The family was denied access to higher education and experienced a life of poverty and fear until the communist regime collapsed in 1991.

Julian remembers how he had “longed for the moment to visit Kosovo for the first time because it then seemed I would be entering the West – but I was disappointed.”

The terror experienced by many Kosovo Albanians during Milosevic’s rule shocked him. “I understood what a police state they were living in – constantly scared for their lives,” he explains. “Furthermore, they seemed different, as if they belonged to another nation.”

Fatos Lubonja, an Albanian writer and former political dissident who spent most of his youth in Hoxha’s gulags, says the fact that Kosovo Albanians experienced a different history from that of the Albanians in Albania since 1912 has helped shape their respective identities.

“The Albanians of Kosovo for a certain period of time felt more Yugoslav than Albanian,” Lubonja says. “National awakening, even there [in Kosovo], has been a process.”

One identity or two?

Travelling from Tirana to Pristina on the newly-constructed four-lane highway is an enjoyable experience. A decade ago, it would have been unthinkable.

The idea that Kosovo would be an independent nation, recognised by 63 states, including the US and 22 of the 27 member states of the European Union, was even more unimaginable back then.

Nexhmedin Spahiu, professor of political science at the University of Pristina and author of a book, Towards the Kosovar Nation, maintains that Kosovo Albanians and Albanian Albanians have evolved separate identities.

“In terms of ethnicity, we have the same identity because we speak the same language and have common traditions,” he says. “But we have had different histories and this has created two distinct identities – separated from one another in the political sense of the word.”

Spahiu says Kosovo is unusual in that it is creating a national identity after the country has declared independence – not the other way round. “We created our state before being shaped as a nation,” he notes.

With its own flag, national anthem and other symbols, “we will progress towards the creation of a Kosovar nation made up not only of Albanians but other ethnic minority communities,” he predicts.

Other commentators also admit the existence of important social differences between Kosovo Albanians and Albanians in Albania.

“When we first made contact with the Kosovo Albanians during the NATO air war, it did not take me long to discover that we were similar – but as time passed I noticed differences,” Mustafa Nano, a Tirana political commentator, says.

“In 1999 I would have said that we had a common identity, but today I would answer that our identities are distinct,” he adds. “This is revealed in our relations to the nation, to religion, to the family, the state and our work ethics,” Nano continues.

One obvious difference between the two peoples is their speech. The Gheg dialect used in Kosovo differs from the language that is taught in school and used in Albania.

Enver Hoxha, a southerner, imposed the southern Tosk dialect on all of Albania. As a result, use of the Gheg dialect is often frowned upon.

In Tirana, Kosovo Albanians are often perceived as people with rural values who cling to outdated clan structures, something the communist regime in Albania reviled during its long dictatorship.

Kosovo Albanians have their own grudges against Albanians from Albania, seeing them as less patriotic than themselves and indifferent to the Albanian cause.

At the same time, many ordinary Albanians believe these differences are only skin deep and are mostly based on prejudice.

When Murat Rrahmani from Mitrovica fled the armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999 with his wife, mother and three daughters, he settled in the southern Albanian town of Vlora.

“I was worried,” Murat recalls. He knew only that the town had been at the centre of major unrest a few years earlier, following the failure of a series of pyramid investment schemes.

But the poor working-class family with whom Murat and his family took refuge surprised them with their hospitality.

“Because of the difference in dialect we had trouble understanding our hosts at first,” Murat says. “But we adapted fast and after a while we felt at home.” Now back in Kosovo, he and his family return to Vlora each year.

Mehmet Shushollari, the construction worker who hosted Murat’s family, says that, although the two families knew little of each other, in the end they found they were much the same.

“In Vlora, we knew very little about Kosovo,” Mehmet says. “But we lived with Murat’s family for several months and, although they were not very keen on seafood, we found each other very similar, even in culinary terms,” he adds.

Some intellectuals also feel that a separate Kosovar identity does not really exist. “The term ‘Kosovar identity’ is artificial. It’s difficult to define what it really is – even for those who think it exists,” Pristina-based sociologist Shkelzen Maliqi says. “Although there are differences in the worldviews of Kosovo Albanians and those across the border, these differences are not enough to make up an identity.”

“A Kosovar identity would not be… a stable and strong identity, with a clear meaning,” he adds.

Kosovo Albanian academic Rexhep Qosja agrees. Those who speak of different identities for Kosovo Albanians and Albanians from Albania should remember that every human being has their own “identity”, he maintains.

“The same logic stands for different areas inhabited by Albanians, where people have their own micro-identities,” he explains. “But if we stretch this to all Albanians, they have a common identity that is made up of these micro-identities.”

Rather than Albanians creating differences among themselves, Qosja says it is their neighbours that have superimposed such differences.

He notes the different terms that the Serbian language uses for an Albanian in Kosovo and an Albanian in Albania – “siptar” and “albanac” respectively.

Qosja says the international community might want to encourage the development of a specific Kosovar identity for political reasons, “thinking that will make Serbs more comfortable.”

But he insists that Albanians on both sides of the border “are one nation, and the pretence of creating another nation or identity is not only absurd but anti-historical.”

“The two Koreas are two states, as was divided Germany, but, other than the different political systems, no-one [has ever] believed that either was two separate nations,” he concludes.

Reunion in the EU

For some Albanians in Kosovo, having a new identity does not mean radically changing their perceptions of themselves, but enriching their existing Albanian identity.

“A new state is being established with a new flag and its own boundaries, and efforts are being made to establish an identity for Kosovo Albanians that is no longer like the identity they once had,” Bujar, a reporter in Pristina, says.

The Albanians of Albania and the Albanians of Kosovo are not the only people following the debate over identity.

In Macedonia, a quarter of the population is also ethnically Albanian. Many of them feel excluded from both Albanian ‘nations’, especially by the current stress on Kosovo’s separate identity.

“What identity do I have?” asks Arben, a worker at a pharmaceutical company in the western Macedonian town of Tetovo. “Am I Albanian, Macedonian, Muslim, or am I a Kosovar, as many in Albania call us?”

Julian agrees. To many ordinary people like him, the new focus on Kosovo’s identity looks divisive. “Up to the time of NATO’s intervention, everybody argued for being Albanian,” he says. “Now that they don’t have to deal with the Serbs, they have started to argue with each other.”

For many Albanian politicians, the answer to Arben’s question about where he fits in must come, at least in part, through integration into the European Union.

Only then will Albanians throughout the region be truly reunited, because national borders will then have little or no meaning.

Speaking in Pristina in October, Albania’s Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, said that although the division of Kosovo from Albania had left scars, they had remained essentially one nation that aspired towards a common future in the EU.

“The nation is one and undivided, and there are not two Albanian nations as there are not two Croat and Serb nations,” he said, adding: “There is no brighter future for us Albanians to wish for than integration into the EU.”

Read the article in Albanian

This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.

Other Articles

• No Related Post

Members of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs also supported Fajon’s proposal to start a visa dialogue with Kosovo.

MEP’s voted in favour of Fajon’s report late on Monday, with one vote against and two abstentions.

They approved a compromise amendment to add Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, to the list of visa-free states, with a footnote, stating that this would only occur after a positive assessment by the European Commission, EC, is approved by the EU Council.

“I am happy to see [...] strong support in the EP for the acceleration of visa liberalisation for BiH and Albania, which made significant progress in the last few months”, Fajon said in a statement.

“We sent tonight a strong message to the European Commission and Council that the EU should allow free travel to the citizens of these two countries to the Schengen area as soon as possible,” she added.

On July 14, the EC proposed the lifting of EU visa restrictions on citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The three states’ nationals will likely enjoy visa-free travel to the EU from January 1, 2010.

Albania and Bosnia were excluded from the first wave of visa liberalisation, because the EC found they had not fulfilled the necessary benchmarks.

The EP committee also supported Fajon’s argument that the EC should, within the limits of its competence, and in light of UNSCR 1244/99, start a visa dialogue with Kosovo.

”Kosovo should not stay a black hole in the map of the western Balkans,” Fajon said.

The EP will vote, provisionally, on Fajon’s draft report on visa liberalisation for the western Balkans in a plenary session on November 12. However, under the current institutional framework, the EC is not obliged to obey EP decisions. Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

The Serbian and Russian presidents have already agreed on the loan. Although neither president mentioned details at a joint press conference, Balkan Insight has learned it will include 200 million dollars for the budget, while the rest is earmarked for infrastructure projects, mostly for the railways.

The Serbian President, Boris Tadic, said only that the Serbian delegation had received a positive answer to their request for provision of a 1 billion US dollars loan at today’s talks.

Serbian and Russian representatives signed a number of bilateral agreements, including one to establish a joint company (South stream Serbia) to project, build, and manage the route for the South Stream gas pipeline through Serbia and another for gas storage facility in northern Serbia at Banatski Dvor (Banatski Dvor UGS Joint Venture). The company will manage and built underground tank with capacity of 450 million cubic meters of gas.

Tadic and Medvedev said relations between the two countries were developing well and agreed that Medvedev’s visit was of historic significance.

In a clear reference to Kosovo, Medvedev said Russia would continue to defend Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He added that Russia also supported Serbia’s EU integration process. Tadic thanked Medvedev for Russia’s strong support for Serbia in its struggle to prevent international recognition of Kosovo’s independence.

“We are waiting for the International Court of Justice report on the Kosovo issue and then we will be ready for talks with representatives of the Kosovo and Metohija Albanians on compromises and a sustainable solution […]  but Serbia will not accept Kosovo’s independence under any circumstances,” Tadic said.

The UN has asked the Hague Court, the ICJ, to give a ruling on Kosovo’s independence, declared in 2008. Serbia insists Kosovo’s independence is illegal and that the territory remains a province of Serbia.

Tadic added that the two sides had discussed investments in Serbian railways and a Danube River port during their meeting.

“The modernisation of NIS [Serbia’s oil and gas company, now mainly Russian owned], involvement in the construction of the South Stream pipeline, the underground tank in Banatski Dvor – these are all big projects on which the energy security of Europe depends,” Medvedev said, referring to projects involving both countries.

Medvedev’s visit had symbolic value, coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the day when Soviet and Yugoslav forces liberated the Serbian capital in 1944. The two presidents laid a wreath at the grave of Belgrade’s wartime liberators.

The Russian leader also addressed the Serbian parliament where he told the deputies that Serbia’s admittance into the EU would not have a negative impact on relations with Russia but could only advance their relations. Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

“For the first time in the history of Kosovo, the clear guideline for the European [path] of the Republic of Kosovo will be included in the Progress Report and Feasibility Study. This was achieved with the [instigation] of good and efficient governance and the rule of law in Kosovo,” Premier Hashim Thaci said.

Thaci said he was pleased that the report established an EU path for Kosovo and referred to parallel Serbian institutions.

“I am glad that the report on the Kosovo government’s progress shows this dissatisfaction, which we have presented to international officials, which confirms the destructive role of Belgrade,” in Kosovo, said Thaci, referring to the Serbian institutions.

The report expressed concern about corruption in many fields, political influence over the courts and media, and a lack of transparency in procurement procedures. Source: Balkaninight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

The Albanian Ministry of Transportation and Public Works announced on Friday that the tunnel that is the core of the one billion highway project will be closed for further construction works.

“The tunnel must be closed in order to allow the constructor to pursue its work to stabilize a short segment were an unstable geological mass is exerting pressure on the wall. This is an unpredicted situation,” the ministry said in a press release.

The opening of the tunnel of the new highway connecting Albania and Kosovo was inaugurated in early June with a celebration ceremony attended by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The milestone, which was transformed into an electoral rally by the Albanian leader ahead of the June 28 parliamentary poll, saw deputies from both countries and hundreds of supporters congregate in the tunnel in a show of unity between the two sister nations.

The Rreshen-Kalimash road, although not yet completed, was also inaugurated in an electoral stunt on June 26, by Prime Minister Berisha and his Turkish counterpart, Receep Tayyip Erdogan.

Albania’s largest public works project in decades, the four-lane highway is expected to strengthen the already deep ties between Albania and Kosovo, where more than 90 per cent of the population of 2 million is of Albanian descent.

It will make travel for hundreds of thousands of Kosovars who cross the border to take their summer holidays in Albania each year much easier.

The road has been dubbed the “patriotic highway,” reflecting the widely perceived geopolitical motives behind the project – and the fact that no feasibility study was ever undertaken into the possible return on investment for the massive undertaking. Corruption allegations and cost overruns have led many to question the ultimate value of the highway’s construction.

According to a study of the High State Auditing Office seen by Balkan Insight, the highway could take as many as 180 years to return its one billion-plus euro cost; however, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Berisha says it will return its investment in six years.

Last November, following a 17-month investigation, Albanian Prosecutor General Ina Rama indicted Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha on charges of abuse of office in connection with the tender for the highway.

Rama said the deal with Bechtel-Enka to build the most challenging portion of the road, the 61-kilometre stretch from Rreshen to Kalimash, had cost the country hundreds of millions of euros more than originally necessary.

The charge related to Basha’s tenure as transport minister from 2005 to 2007. The prosecutor maintained that Basha and his then-chief legal aide, Andi Toma, illegally favoured Bechtel-Enka.

The minister allegedly allowed construction to begin before the blueprint for the work was finished and in breach of Albanian law on open public tenders. He allegedly accepted a much higher price per work unit than was charged for similar projects elsewhere.

The price tag for Bechtel-Enka’s work, which covers a little more than one-third of the highway’s full length, has leaped from 416 million euros in the initial contract to more than 1 billion euros, according to prosecution charges.

Prosecution experts and the state auditing office say the Transport Ministry’s wrongful action cost Albanian taxpayers between 114 and 232 million euros, depending on the method used to calculate the cost.

However, on April 10, the Supreme Court dismissed the charges on a series of technicalities, arguing that Basha had not been indicted properly last November.

“This is the end of a political process and the end of the plot against the highway,” a relieved Basha told reporters outside the courthouse, blaming an international conspiracy between Serbian spies and the opposition for the charges.

The ruling has been harshly criticised by legal experts, however. And despite the ruling, the case against the minister is not over. Prosecutors have appealed the case and a new ruling from the Supreme Court is expected. However, because of the political sensitivities of the weight put in defence of the minister by PM Berisha and his Democratic Party, few local observers believe that the case will be ever sent to trial.

While the Rreshen-Kalimash section of the highway has cost Albania over one billion euros, according to the charges filed against Basha, this is not, of course, the total cost of the highway to Kosovo.

The Rreshen-Kalimash section is only a part of the 170-kilometre route. The Albanian government refuses to give an exact estimate of the total cost of the project.
Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

EULEX confirmed on Friday that it had signed the controversial agreement with Serbia’s Interior Ministry which will allow for the exchange of information on cross-border crime.

Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci had earlier claimed that the protocol would undermine their country’s sovereignty and stated that negotiations on the issue were ‘closed’.

The deal was the subject of intense negtiations between Pristina and the International Civilian Represenative Pieter Feith and the ‘Quint’ – the heads of mission in Kosovo of the USA, UK, Germay, Italy and France.

Minutes before the signing of the protocol, Kosovo’s government issued a statement in which it appeared to soften its stance.

In a joint statement, President Sejdiu and Prime Minister Thaci said: “Such arrangements have not and cannot have any impact on the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Kosovo.”

Following the signing, EULEX said: “These arrangements, signed today on behalf of EULEX with the full support of the EU 27 member states, are an important step forward with a view to improve the rule of law throughout the whole of Kosovo.

“Regional cooperation is a key factor in combatting cross border criminality. The mission will continue to seek operational cooperation on all such issues, related to its mandate.

“However, in this context it is important to underline that EULEX is here to support Kosovo in the rule of law area and would never take any steps that would harm Kosovo. ”

The US Department of State said: “The United States hopes that the police cooperation fostered by this arrangement will assist in the fight against cross-border criminality in the Western Balkans region, a fight to which both Kosovo and the United States are committed.”

The move has sparked a series of protests in Kosovo and a demonstration is planned for Pristina next Wednesday, supported by more than 20 organisations.

Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• 7 January 2009 -- Violence Continues in Kosovo Flashpoint (0)
• 18 November 2008 -- Albania Rejects UN Plan on Kosovo (0)
• 3 June 2009 -- Slovenia Tops Balkan Peace Index (1)
• 2 June 2009 -- Albania-Kosovo Highway Marks Milestone (0)
• 29 January 2009 -- Jeremic Lobbies UN On Kosovo (0)

In its “Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times” report, released on Tuesday, the World Bank found that Eastern European and Central Asian states are the global leaders when it comes to the pace of business reforms, for the second consecutive year.

“Reforms continue to move eastward across the region. Albania, Belarus, the Kyrgyz Republic, and FYR Macedonia implemented reforms in several areas for the third year in row,” a World Bank press release quoted Svetlana Bagaudinova, a report author, as saying.

The report, obtained by Balkan Insight, finds that all west Balkan countries have improved their business environments in 10 key categories. These include the cost of starting and closing a business, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, trading across borders, protecting investors and enforcing contracts.

In the past year, only Romania has allowed its business environment to worsen in three categories: dealing with construction permits, paying taxes and closing a business.

In the face of the burgeoning global recession, most countries have raced to further improve their business environments over the past year, which is seen as key in attracting cautious investors.

Macedonia is the country to have made the most progress in instituting reforms in the west Balkans. From position 69 (of 183) in 2008, Macedonia jumped to the 32nd position this year, thanks to improvements on almost all the 10 key categories.

Bulgaria held 44th position, while Slovenia improved its ranking from 58 to position 53. Romania dropped down ten positions to 55th place on the list. Montenegro took 71, Albania 82 and Serbia 88th place. Croatia was placed at 103, Kosovo 113, and Bosnia trailed the pack at position 116.

The report completes the seventh in a series of surveys conducted by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Although these reports do not measure all aspects of the business environment – such as security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level, or the strength of financial systems – they are broadly seen as one of the most accurate gauges of the constantly changing business environment worldwide. Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post

Despite the global economic downturn, Albania’s National Tourism Agency says the country has seen an increase in visitor numbers in the first nine months of the year.

More than 1.5 million visitors entered Albania from January to July, a 36 per cent hike on the same period in 2008.

Roughly one million visitors were from overseas, with 92 per cent of foreign visitors coming from Europe. Most of the remaining 8 per cent came from the US or Asia.

Statistics show that 89 per cent of registered visitors said that they were in the country on vacation, or to meet relatives and friends. A smaller percentage said they were in the country on business.

The largest single group of foreign visitors were from Kosovo (37 per cent), followed by visitors from Macedonia and Montenegro. All three have large ethnic Albanian populations and local experts often refer to this sector of the market as patriotic tourism.

Albanian tourism has experienced exponential growth in the last few years as the country slowly emerges from a difficult and often tumultuous transitional period.

However, while the government points to statistics in demonstrating the purported success of the tourism industry, tour operators and lobby groups complain that the country’s underdeveloped infrastructure and lack of promotion are leaving the Albanian market several steps behind its competitors.

In the latest World Economic Forum report on competitiveness in the international travel and tourism industry, Albania ranked 90th on a list of 133 countries.

In contrast, Tirana’s neighbour to the north, Montenegro, is ranked at 52, while Croatia sits at 34. Albania managed to come ahead of only two states in the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova. The countries listed in a similar position include war-torn African nations.

The report found that the Albanian travel and tourism industry employs 41,000 workers and earned 358 million euros in 2008, equivalent to 4.1 per cent of GDP. Source: Balkaninsight

Other Articles

• No Related Post