WRITTEN QUESTION E-3483/01

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 December 2001)

Subject: Aid to Albania

There is a considerable difference between the commitments made by the EU in the form of financial assistance to Albania and actual expenditure. What are the reasons for both the EU's failure to deliver on its promises and the failure of schemes such as road-building projects, water supply schemes and the creation of fish markets? What is the Commission doing to resolve the problem?

What is the reason behind the shift from using aid for general economic development, to using it to create conditions for formal links between Albania and the EU? Does the Commission still support this shift? If not what is being done to correct it?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(1 March 2002)

Implementation of Community assistance in Albania over the past years has been delayed by a number of factors: the unstable internal situation in the country, the limited administrative capacity of the Albanian authorities to act as a real counterpart, and the lack of implementation and enforcement capacity by Albania as regards legislation necessary for project implementation (for example, expropriation or land planning for transport and water infrastructures).

The Commission is currently undertaking a thorough review of ongoing and planned projects in Albania. This review might lead to project closures and re-programming of project activities and will encompass also the project on a fish market in Vlora.

An audit of the Commission's road projects was conducted in 1999. It found that some of the road-building schemes have faltered because the Albanian Government was unable, in the troubled days of three years ago, to expropriate the required land, and because some of the initial designs were not appropriate. To improve the situation, the quality and risk assessment capacity has been strengthened by the appointment of civil engineers to the Delegation. Furthermore, to address the relatively weak institutional environment in Albania, the Commission is assisting the Government in drawing up a master plan for the country's road network and offered assistance to elaborate on a road safety plan for Albania. The same quality and risk assessment approach, paired with institution building support, is applied in the water sector. Two of the five major road projects concerned were completed in 2001, with the remaining three in the first half of 2002. Indeed, anyone who travelled two years ago from Tirana, to Durres, Rrogozhine or Lushnje, and does so again today, will notice the progress that has been made.

The Commission is taking action to improve its performance in Albania. In addition to the establishment in 2001 of the EuropeAid Cooperation Office and efforts to streamline procedures, part on the major reform underway in the EC's external assistance programme worldwilde, the Commission plans substantially to reinforce its delegation in Tirana, with the specific objective of improving implementation. Furthermore, the Commission has adopted (on 18 December 2001, after a detailed analysis of the situation in the country) a new, improved strategy paper for Albania(1), which will be the framework for the programming and implementation of future Community assistance.

Community assistance in Albania supports general economic development. But it does so by putting emphasis on creating the institutional framework for a market economy, by consolidating democracy and civil society, building the rule of law in particular through an independent judiciary, supporting public order and fight against organised crime, fraud and corruption, securing fiscal sustainability of the state, enhancing key areas of the public administration in order to achieve an adequate business environment, supporting long-term, sustainable development through improving education or environmental protection. In all these areas, the aim is to help Albania make progress towards the Union, an aspiration which enjoys very substantial support among the people of Albania and which is an important element of the Union's efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to the Balkans.

(1) C(2001) 4394.