Author: Marina Zela
The European Union is the main partner for Albania in the fight against corruption. By offering not only financial support, but also technical assistance, it has contributed to strengthening the country's institutions and strategies against this phenomenon.
According to the European Union Delegation to Albania, in the last 10 years alone, the EU has invested over 15 million Euros in preventing and eradicating corruption in Albania. “ Among the most prominent programs are the IPA 2016 Sector Reform Contract for the Fight against Corruption in Albania and the support we have provided to the ONM (International Monitoring Operation) and SPAK (Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime), ”- states the response that the European Union Delegation to Albania gave to the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism (ACQJ).
Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Institute for Political Studies in Tirana, says for the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism (ACJJ) that the investment of the European Union to fight corruption in Albania is multiple.
"It is related to laws, it is related to the structure of institutions, it is related to the financing of monitoring projects and then it is related to the strengthening and independence of these institutions and the creation of mechanisms for which officials must be accountable and become to some extent visible to the public," says Krasniqi, emphasizing that such a fact is related to the declaration of annual assets of each official, or other verifications that occur within the framework of the Vetting process in various institutions as well as in the Security sector.
Albania facing Corruption
In 2017, the EU, through a grant of 10 million euros, aimed to help the Albanian Government implement a cross-sectoral anti-corruption strategy through the Sector Reform Contract for the Fight against Corruption program in the country. The goal was to create transparent and incorruptible institutions in Albania. Although the data made public online states that this project has a duration until December of last year, 2023, the EU Delegation clarifies that the program ended in 2022.
“The Sector Reform Contract for the Fight against Corruption in Albania included an initial budget support component of €8.3 million ,” the EU Delegation’s response reads, explaining that the budget support program is based on indicators jointly established between the EU and the Albanian Government for anti-corruption. “The EU would provide annual tranches to the Albanian national budget depending on the extent to which these indicators were met. The program ended in 2022 with €6.8 million finally disbursed against the fulfilled indicators,” it further reads.
Although the European Union has played an important role in building democracy and creating important institutions to fight corruption in the country, according to the assessment made by the EU Services for the year 2023, it results that despite the continuous efforts to fight corruption, still fighting it remains a serious matter.
Specifically, the 2023 progress report for Albania, published this month, emphasizes that despite some progress and continued efforts in the fight against corruption, this phenomenon remains an area of serious concern.
“The SPAK bodies have conducted investigations into a number of high-level cases, ordering several arrests and convictions for a number of high-level cases. Overall, corruption is widespread in many areas of public and business life and preventive measures continue to have a limited impact, especially in vulnerable sectors. Increasing the number of final convictions at a high level remains an important priority to further address the culture of impunity,” the report states, while emphasizing that further efforts are needed to ensure proper judicial prosecution in vetting cases where there are indications of criminal offences.
The lack of credibility on the part of the citizens for the improvement of the situation in the framework of the fight against corruption to receive service from the institutions, continues to remain a problematic issue.
A report by the Regional Cooperation Council shows that Albanians rank their country second only to Serbs in terms of perceived high levels of corruption. Corruption is seen as the main cause of dissatisfaction in the economic sphere, and is often perceived as the only way to receive public Services. Albania has also had its share of cases where high-ranking officials, both domestic and European, have been involved in corruption scandals. According to Afrim Krasniqi, the greatest difficulties are related to sectoral financing projects, where monitoring is also more difficult.
"We have had several scandals over the years and from EU officials, foreign officials and Albanian officials who have been in partnership with them. One of the biggest difficulties is the sectoral financing projects because it is very difficult to monitor them", says Krasniqi. Meanwhile, the EU Delegation shows what are the policies followed by the EU to monitor the proper management of grants given to Albanian institutions.
“The specific monitoring methodology depends on the type of support provided. In most cases, assistance is provided through technical assistance and support projects implemented by partners. In these cases, project progress is monitored in accordance with EU rules and regulations on the basis of the work defined in the tasks. For budget support operations, such as those that are part of the sector reform contract, progress is monitored on the basis of a defined set of indicators agreed between the EU and the Government of Albania”, the Delegation writes to the ACQJ.
But despite continuous support and monitoring of grants, in Transparency International 's Corruption Perceptions Index , Albania ranks 101st, which is one of the indicators of the high level of corruption in the country.
Economic expert Zef Preçi explains the consequences of corruption on the Albanian economy and society. “Increasing costs of goods and Services, worsening living standards of Albanian families, poor functioning of markets due to distortion of competition in them, inability to create new jobs, weakening of the competitive capabilities of our national economy, slowing down of its growth rates, etc.,” are some of the long-term consequences that the expert lists.
Albania and the (mis)management of EU funds
"In what is called transparency and anti-corruption policy, every international donor calculates that there is a loss along the way, which means that there is a level of corruption, a level of bureaucracy, a level of change in the situation, or a level of payments, unaccounted expenses related to human resources, with forecasts that go beyond what was foreseen in the project or developments in political crises, etc., which have an impact on projects. But when this limit is crossed, that means that the red line is touched and here it becomes a concern for the EU and intervenes in other levels of investigation," says Krasniqi, emphasizing that the specific case of abuses with IPARD II funds in Albania, funds with which the EU aims to provide financial support in the field of agriculture, is a flagrant case of corruption.
"First of all, it is an arrogant scandal, which means that they have used EU funding for Albania as their private wallet by distributing honors and favors to those who are called oligarchs and media people, and people who have power in Albania," says Afrim Krasniqi, emphasizing that the non-dedicated funds for the project, the manipulation, diversion and realization of corrupt affairs through them "is so obvious, so flagrant that it would be disappointing if the European Union were silent on such cases."
According to the answer given by the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development to the request for information, it turns out that in the framework of rural and agricultural development within IPARD II, only through this agency the EU has offered a grant of approximately 65 million euros, while 21 million euros have been invested by the Albanian Government.
For the economic expert, Zef Preçi, the monopolization of the distribution of funds of the IPARD II project, which was carried out to help farmers, besides being a violation of the principles on the basis of which the grant would be received, also serves as an alarm bell. for the EU about the corruption situation in Albania.
" The involvement of officials, former officials, and organized crime figures in the beneficiaries of these funds seems to have served as an alarm bell for the EU and it is in the interest of Albanian citizens that SPAK's investigations be completed as soon as possible to pave the way for the reactivation of the project ," concludes Zef Preçi.
The EU, support over the years but still corruption at a high level
The European Union's programs to assist in establishing a New Cross-Sectoral Strategy for Preventing and Fighting Corruption and for Transparent Governance with the aim of reducing corruption have been applied in Albania and the Balkans during the periods 2016-2019, within the framework of the Anti-Corruption Project.
The same project, with a duration of 36 months, was implemented again in Albania during 2019-2022.
In the final summary of the second phase of the Horizontal Instrument for the Western Balkans and Turkey II, it is announced that this project is being re-implemented in the region and Albania in a historical context where Balkan countries do not continue to have difficulties in fighting corruption.
"According to reports made by the Council of Europe monitoring bodies (GRECO and MONEYVAL), as well as the EU Progress Reports, all countries in the region continue to suffer from weaknesses in their systems for preventing and combating corruption/money laundering/terrorism financing," says the summary of the project, whose overall objective is to contribute to and increase trust in the rule of law and democracy in Albania through the prevention and control of economic crime in accordance with European and other international standards.
Despite continuous efforts to fight corruption in Albania, the challenges remain great. Trust in institutions and the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures must be addressed in a sustainable manner to achieve sustainable progress in this direction.
