Albania, 2011

First, I would like to

extend my heartfelt congratulations to the President of

the General Assembly on his election. I wish him every

success in leading the work of the Assembly at its

sixty-sixth session. I would like to express my

gratitude to his predecessor for his invaluable

contribution. May I also take this opportunity to extend

special thanks to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for

his excellent organization of this session and for his

wise and determined leadership at the helm of the

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United Nations over the past few years. I wish him the

utmost success over the four years ahead.

Our world today is experiencing major and

complex crises that threaten the peace and stability of

several regions and our planet as a whole. However,

this year’s spring was a great and historic one for

Africa and the entire world. More than 125 million

oppressed people stood up with courage, determination

and sacrifice and overthrew tyrannical regimes in five

countries in Africa and opened the gates of freedom for

their nations.

As a representative of a country that only 20

years ago brought down the Hoxhaist dictatorship —

the worst that Albania and Europe had ever known — I

would like to cordially welcome and salute the

representatives of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, South Sudan

and Ivory Coast who are present at this Assembly

session. Today, we pay tribute to the thousands of

citizens of those countries who with great courage and

legendary bravery lost their lives in order to liberate

their countries from ruthless tyrannies and who made

their countries, the African continent and the entire

world more free and more just than ever. With their

sacrifices, however, those who fought and fell in the

name of freedom have delivered a sacred message to

the very hearts and minds of all oppressed people on

our planet: Be not afraid!

On the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the

communist dictatorship, despite the unquestionable

difficulties inherent in building a democracy based on

market values, Albania has continuously affirmed that

for the individual, our society and our nation as a

whole freedom is the greatest of all assets and riches.

Twenty years ago, Albania was one of the three

poorest countries in the world, plagued by extreme

poverty and chronic starvation. Today, Albania belongs

to the group of countries with middle to upper income

levels. Formerly a totally hyper-collectivized country,

today it has the smallest public sector in Europe, with

more than 84 per cent of its gross domestic product

(GDP) coming from the private sector.

Twenty years ago, human rights and freedoms

were forbidden under the country’s Constitution.

Today, Albania is a country with a functional

democracy, freedom of speech and free elections and in

which there is full respect for minority rights and

religious tolerance par excellence.

Albania was the most isolated country in the

world. Now, it is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty

alliance and makes its contribution to peace and

stability in the region and beyond, while remaining

firmly focused on its path towards European Union

integration. Today, Albanians travel freely throughout

Europe, while the number of foreign citizens who have

visited Albania for tourism and other purposes has

increased, from 300,000 in 2004 to 3.5 million last

year.

Recently, during this period of major European

and global financial crises, Albania’s economy

remained one of the few in the world that did not

experience a recession. The United Nations Conference

on Trade and Development estimates that global

foreign direct investment decreased by 37 per cent

from 2007 to 2010, while the same source confirms

that in Albania it grew by 316 per cent from 2006 to

2010.

Over the past few years, Albanian exports have

grown by 300 per cent. Unemployment has decreased,

and so has poverty, by a margin of some 30 per cent.

Our economic model is based entirely on economic

freedom. Last year, that freedom suffered a major

setback worldwide, whereas in my country it increased

by 16 per cent.

The Albanian economy is not detached from the

global economy. In fact, the opposite is true: being a

small economy, it is linked to and affected by it. That is

why I believe that four main factors determine its

performance.

The first factor is a small government and public

sector. Albania’s public administration and public

sector are at least 50 per cent smaller than those of any

other similarly sized country in the region and beyond.

Furthermore, I am pleased to state that my Government

ranks among the top 10 Governments with the lowest

level of interference in the economy.

Secondly, Albania is a country of flat-rate taxes.

At 10 per cent, its fiscal burden is the lowest in

Europe. The increase in fiscal freedoms and the

successful fight against corruption allowed our country

to double its budgetary revenue from customs and

taxes in four years’ time.

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Thirdly, we invested heavily in infrastructure to

stimulate growth. My Government has spent 8 per cent

to 10 per cent of our GDP on road infrastructure alone,

three years in a row. A total of 8,000 km of new roads

have been constructed, more than in the entire history

of the country. Within the next two years, Albania will

have a new and modern road infrastructure that will

allow our citizens as well as foreign visitors to reach

our capital, Tirana, from any part of the country in

60 per cent less time than previously required.

Fourthly, we have made it easier to open a

business or expand an existing one by putting in place

an efficient digital one-stop-shopping system for

business registrations, licences and permits, and by

drastically reducing bureaucratic procedures.

Yet the debt and the euro crisis are hanging like

the sword of Damocles over our national currency, the

lek, and our economy. I take this opportunity to call

upon the countries of the eurozone to take into

consideration the effects of the crisis on our economy

and others that are closely linked to the euro.

The greatest desire and fondest dream of all

Albanians is to see Albania become a developed

country. I know that the road ahead of us is not

smooth; it may be bumpy at times, but it is also the one

that will take us higher and higher. I am convinced that

it is a righteous and a sure path of hope by which the

dream of a fully developed Albania will come true.

To achieve that dream, the Government of

Albania is committed to sustainable development.

Developing countries and emerging markets such as

that of Albania face countless difficulties, but they also

have the advantage of learning from the mistakes of

developed countries and being able to avoid them.

With that in mind, we are determined to turn Albania

into a small superpower of renewable energy in the

region. With its rich water resources, Albania

resembles a small Norway on the Balkan peninsula.

My Government has already signed with the private

sector a concessional contract for the construction of

220 of the 450 hydropower stations that are to be built.

Companies from all over Europe and the rest of the

world are already engaged in that process.

Additionally, major natural wind platforms exist

throughout the country, and the Government has given

and is giving licenses for the production of thousands

of megawatts of electricity by wind parks. Albania is

also one of the sunniest places in Europe, and the

Government is determined to exploit solar as well as

geothermal energy.

I believe that in addition to the major efforts

necessary to achieve an international legal framework

to prevent global warming and lower greenhouse-gas

emissions, we must speedily reach an agreement

stipulating that a percentage of the aid that generous

donors are offering to support this cause be used for

the purpose of supporting private-sector companies

that are focused on renewable energy projects. Such

funds could be used to cover the cost of the loan

interest incurred in realizing renewable energy

projects. I am sure that they will increase manifold the

production of renewable energy in the very near future.

To combat climate change and improve

environmental conditions, forestation is also very

important. The United Nations Billion Tree Campaign

has been met with a successful response by many

countries and deserves credit as a first important step.

However, our potential is much greater.

The Government of Albania has started an

ambitious programme aimed at taking advantage of our

country’s potential in terms of fruit trees. We intend to

plant, in the next eight years, some 50 million olive

trees and around 200 million nut trees of different

varieties. The project, which started two years ago, is

subsidized by public funds. I am pleased to inform the

Assembly that this project is moving rapidly ahead and

that it has given rise to a real and unprecedented tree-

planting passion on the part of my fellow citizens.

Albania will welcome any and all help from the United

Nations and its Member States to successfully

complete this project.

Albania fully supports the Open Government

Partnership initiated by the President of the United

States, Barack Obama, and the President of Brazil,

Dilma Rousseff; that is why we have joined the

initiative. Our efforts towards an open Government

have as a primary objective the project entitled

“Albania in the digital age”. In a short time, we have

expanded access to the Internet to all our schools and

have started offering free Internet service to every

citizen in all post offices throughout the country.

A total of 2.1 million Albanians have availed

themselves of this opportunity and have surfed the

Internet, many of them for the first time in their lives.

This has helped increase the percentage of the

population in Albania using the Internet from a mere

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4.8 per cent in early 2006 to 60 per cent today —

roughly two thirds of the population. Free Internet

service will continue to be available in all post offices

and in some additional offices to be opened for that

purpose. Moreover, the Government is fully committed

to making super-broadband Internet available over the

next two years and to guaranteeing one-stop-shopping

services to citizens throughout the country.

We believe that the digital age is above all the

age of transparency. Based on this belief, Albania two

years ago became the first country in the world with a

100 per cent electronic procurement system certified

by the United Nations. That system has led to a sixfold

increase in participating public bids, reducing

procurement costs by 27 per cent. Today Albania is a

country featuring e-tax, e-customs, e-university

admissions, and e-business registration and e-civil

status registry. The Government intends to offer all

those services and others in a one-stop-shop context in

the very near future.

E-government and transparency strengthen

democracy, and our law also guarantees free access for

our citizens to all acts, decisions and public

expenditures of the Government. In order to strengthen

the role of civil society, my Government has for the

past two years had a specific budgetary provision in

that respect that is entirely administered by an

independent board of civil society.

Albania has excellent relations with its immediate

neighbours and, in general, with the countries of the

region. We would like to develop and consolidate

further relations with the Republic of Serbia as well. I

am very pleased to inform the Assembly that the

Government of Kosovo possesses an equally strong

will in the area of good-neighbourly relations and has

shown assiduous commitment and seriousness in the

process of negotiations in Brussels. The International

Court of Justice decided in July last year in The Hague

that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was in full

compliance with international law.

The Republic of Kosovo has been recognized by

more than 80 States, and I take this opportunity to call

upon the rest of the States Members of the United

Nations to recognize the independent republic of

Kosovo, which has become, in fact, an important factor

for peace, stability and cooperation in our region. I also

call upon Serbia, which went through the General

Assembly to ask the opinion of the International Court

of Justice, to adapt its position in line with the decision

of the Court, thus demonstrating that it accepts and

respects international law in its entirety and not only

those parts that serve its cause.

In accordance with President Ahtisaari’s package,

and in close cooperation with the European Union Rule

of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), the International

Security Force in Kosovo (KFOR) and other

international institutions present in the country, the

republic of Kosovo has put in place and implemented

the highest standards in the region and beyond as

regards the freedoms and rights of minorities.

The most worrying problems for the Serbs in

Kosovo today are the tensions created and orchestrated

for nationalistic purposes. Serbian cultural heritage in

Kosovo is today more secure than ever. It is a precious

cultural heritage not only for the Serbs in Kosovo but

also for Albanians and all other citizens of Kosovo, as

well as for Serbia, the entire region and the whole of

Europe. I would like to reassure the representatives of

the Member States that the only threat Serbs in Kosovo

face is that of being exploited to serve the purposes of

a bitter past that must not ever return.

Meanwhile, inter-ethnic relations in all areas

where Serbs and Albanians live together in the same

communities are very good. However, the parallel

structures funded by Belgrade in the three Serbian

homogeneous communes in northern Mitrovica, where

no other ethnic groups reside, have turned them into a

safe haven for organized crime and smuggling and

trafficking of all sorts.

The Government of the republic of Kosovo is

determined to implement the rule of law in those

communes and engage in effective border and customs

control, in full compliance with the agreement reached

in Brussels and the Ahtisaari document. Those efforts,

however, have met strong resistance from criminal

groups and organized gangs that, with weapons and

other means, are doing all in their power to block the

rule of law. We have supported and will continue to

support the Government of Kosovo, EULEX and

KFOR in their efforts to strengthen law and order in all

the territory of the republic of Kosovo so that peace

and stability will prevail.

I also call on Serbia to do its best to remove the

obstacles to the flow of goods across its border with

Kosovo, and to respect the agreement signed this

month in Brussels, which forbids the embargo and

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provides for freedom of export and import for both

countries. We believe that respect for the actual borders

in the Balkans is a fundamental condition for lasting

peace and stability. Belgrade’s efforts to keep parallel

structures of authority in place in those three

communes demonstrate that it still believes in

reshaping borders in our region based on the failed and

long-outdated idea of ethnically clean countries and the

concept of Greater Serbia.

The Republic of Serbia, in accordance with

international law, has arrested the butcher of the

Balkans and, albeit too late, his lieutenants as well, and

has received the due appreciation of the international

community for doing so. However, I invite Serbia to

cooperate in the search for and return of the remains of

1,500 men, women, children and elderly who were

abducted from their homes and massacred in the

territory of Serbia only because they were Albanians. It

is very important to cleanse one’s country of those who

have committed crimes against humanity, but it is also

important not to hide or cover over the graves of their

victims.

Here yesterday, President Tadic characterized as

true the accusations raised by Mr. Dick Marty

regarding the alleged traffic in organs and mass

killings committed by Albanians in the territory of

Albania. Regarding that report, I would like to state

here the stance of the Albanian Government. Dick

Marty’s report — as acknowledged by the Chief

Prosecutor of Serbia, Vladimir Vukcevic, who has

stated that his own report is fully included in Marty’s

report — is in fact a cut-and-paste of the Vukcevic’s

report. Every person who reads that report sees that it

raises many allegations that are not at all based on

facts or the truth but rather motivated by sinister

intention.

The Dick Marty report — or rather let us call it

the Dick Marty/Vukcevic report — does not produce

even a single fact. I must clarify that in fact it

synthesizes Carla Del Ponte’s memoir, which seem to

have derived from the same unique source. In the

thousands of pages of transcripts of the interrogation of

Slobodan Miloševic and his accusations against

Albanians, there is not a single word of accusation on

his part about organ trafficking or mass graves in my

country. The purpose of the report is to divert attention

from the decision of the International Court of Justice

in favour of the independence of Kosovo.

Nevertheless, the Government of Albania has

officially asked its delegation in the Council of Europe

to vote to endorse the report for the sole purpose of

opening the door to a thorough international

investigation. My Government sent an invitation to

EULEX, and we welcome the fact the EULEX

accepted it. I assure everyone here that my country will

fully cooperate fully with EULEX and its task force so

that the truth about such inventions will be made

known. When I read them for the first time in Carla

Del Ponte’s memoir, they reminded me of Agatha

Christie. I want the EULEX team to come and clarify

everything about those fictions.

Despite all this, our region has made

extraordinary progress, and efforts to cooperate in

building a common future in the European Union are

prevailing every day. My country is doing its best and

is investing heavily in infrastructure to create new

links, new roads and new lines of communication with

all our neighbours. I believe that the time has come

when Albanians and Serbs will try to start archiving the

past and looking for a common future in the best

interests of their nations.

From this rostrum, President Abbas made his

request to the General Assembly for Palestine’s

membership of the United Nations as an independent

State. While my Government fully supports the idea of

an independent Palestine, I believe that unilateral

action will not be helpful. That is why I call on our

Palestinian friends to support the statement made

yesterday by the Quartet, in which it drew a clear road

map for action to address this fundamental question of

our time.