FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Nobody can build a house in the village today except without a permit. A building permit in the village costs 20 thousand euros in taxes and paperwork, the same as a tower in Tirana, and no villager has more than 20 thousand euros to invest in the village...
Prime Minister Edi Rama today called on local governments to turn their attention to the countryside, while proposing several reforms to support agriculture. It is a good sign that at least the government has begun to feel the problem, while the Albanian countryside has not felt the government or the need for the Albanian state for decades.
In fact, returning attention to the village is returning attention to one of the most important branches of the Albanian economy, which urgently needs to be fundamentally rebuilt: Albanian agriculture.
In the context of an unusual development of the tourism economy, Albania risks losing the chance to turn tourism into the identity of its national economy, if it does not fundamentally revive Albanian agriculture.
And this is not a propaganda slogan from seminars, but an urgent need.
First, without wasting time, the government must overcome the destructive effects of the division of land and the issuance of certificates based on law 7501, not by annulling it, because it is no longer repealed, but by imposing a special law on every Albanian peasant who does not work the land, and who does not cooperate according to the planning of agricultural production, that it be nationalized against the obligations that he has to be taxed by the Albanian state.
I don't know how the government can find a solution, but a fair solution is to determine the land's fertility in every corner of Albania, derive a coefficient of benefit to the national economy from that land, and require every irresponsible 35-year-old owner of that land that has been left fallow to pay for it or have their land nationalized.
A milder form of avoiding the destructive effects of this law could be the creation of agricultural farms, where landowners enter there as shareholders with the land they have left fallow and receive the benefits simply as landowners. But this should be a mandatory form and not at the whim of a peasant who says: "I have to leave it unworked there and I won't give it away."
Thousands of hectares of land from Vrina, Vurgu, the Vjosa valley to Myzeqe and Zadrimë are out of operation, as they are property without an owner and the "owners" only appear if they see a tractor near their land working. This is a national crime, and a surrender of the state to a legal-political act that it itself produced at a moment of political upheaval in the country. 35 years are enough to admit that it is a crime. Now it must be urgently corrected.
Second, the government must undertake an extraordinary campaign of deregulation for rural life, and financial support for returning there.
Nobody can build a house in the village today except by building without a permit. A building permit in the village costs 20 thousand euros in taxes and papers, the same as a tower in Tirana, and no villager has more than 20 thousand euros to invest in the village. The people of the state take them only with papers. Thus, we will either have construction without a permit or the village will be abandoned. Houses in the village should be rebuilt with an extra simple procedure, based on the ownership of the land and the type of houses to be built uniformly, with two or three versions.
No more paperwork except the construction project, the type of house and the plot. Preferably, these without money and with some financial support. Everything else is demagogy and bureaucracy to hold the village hostage.
Here is where Prime Minister Rama's warning to the mayors today about their separation from the village comes in. The law of urban coexistence should apply in the village just like in the city, not the law of the jungle. Just as in the city a mayor does not allow someone to place flower pots on the street or block the road, he should also intervene with the same force in the village. The village even needs a special coexistence package not only for opening internal roads but also for keeping livestock at a distance from the village, disciplining the stable dogs that destroy tourism by inciting panic, regulating irrigation and drinking water, sewage that should not be discharged into the street, etc.
If this is not done, no one returns to the village. This is reflected in the fact that no young girl will marry in the village, since the lack of these conditions does not make the village livable, precisely due to the lack of a civilized residential center. And this seems like a ridiculous problem, but it is one of the key reasons why there are no more weddings and children in the village.
Finally, the government must decentralize local power and must create a new spirit of local governance, moving away from governing Albania from an office in Tirana.
Unfortunately, the most decentralized local government in the history of Albania was that of Enver Hoxha. The Executive Committees had more powers than any municipality today. They were responsible for the local economy, for mines, factories, agriculture and livestock, education, health and services.
Today, the municipalities of Albania have nothing in their hands. The economy depends on Tirana, taxes are collected by Tirana, building permits are issued by Tirana, water supply depends on Tirana, mortgages from Tirana, electricity from Tirana. The municipality only collects the anger and complaints of the people for a bunch of thieving inspectors who are released from Tirana and rob people in villages and cities, and the mayors are simply powerless.
If Albania really has a chance to join the European Union in 2030 or later, it cannot do so with centralized power much worse than during the time of Enver Hoxha.
To connect electricity to a house in the village you have to talk to the director of the OSSH in Tirana, to connect water you have to talk to a water supply director in Tirana, to find a nurse you have to talk to the Minister of Health, to get a building permit you have to talk to a construction foreman in Tirana, to get a pasture for cattle you have to talk to Tirana, to get subsidies for agriculture you have to talk to Tirana, then to shout you have to shout at the mayors who have nothing in their hands. In fact, people don't even talk to them on the street, knowing how little they have.
This story must end. The Albanian village must be returned to the Albanian state urgently. To this day, it is on the streets, without a god, without power, without any connection to the government, since neither it gives it money, nor does it pay taxes; without any connection to the economy, since it does not produce in an organized way to generate taxes, but has undeclared services. They live like in the Middle Ages, in the hands of crazy people or provincial thieves, who have remained there, without a god, without a state and without any perspective.
If this governing mandate is not a mandate that integrates the village into the Albanian state, any reform will be a failure. And above all, one of the greatest fortunes that has come to Albania's door, tourism, will lose its influential power in the Albanian economy, as it will not serve to strengthen the economy, but only the tourism traders.
Currently, southern Albania is supplied with meat from Greece, chicken from Greece, cheese from Greece, workers from Asian countries, and electricity and water from the Tirana government. This type of economy is losing Albanian tourism and its national identity, in addition to taking away the chance for our national economy to use tourism to get back on its feet.
The issue of the village should no longer be considered an issue of a few guys and girls with a lot of Instagram followers from Tirana who are appointed "ministers" and know that the store makes milk and the refrigerator makes meat. We need at least a team of professional people who understand agriculture, who understand today's reality in the village, who know that artificial intelligence has not managed to produce tomatoes and sheep, and ChatGPT will not help you escape if the dog of the camp comes out in front of you when you are a tourist in the mountains.
It is urgent that we turn the Albanian countryside, which is two-thirds of the Albanian state, from a national void into a national asset.
Lini një Përgjigje