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On June 8, Prime Minister Edi Rama called an urgent and rare press conference with journalists and in a dramatic tone on the fate of Kosovo, where he announced that he had proposed to the French presidency and the German chancellor "a draft association" for municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosovo.
Rama said at the conference that the draft was confidential and that, as was later confirmed, neither the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, nor the President of Serbia, Aleksandër Vucic, were aware of it.
But despite the prime minister's claims of state secrecy, BIRN has discovered that not only is the document not classified, but it is not even archived by the Council of Ministers.
Based on the law "On the right to information", BIRN asked the Council of Ministers for the draft in question or the legal justification for declaring it a state secret.
In an official response via e-mail, the Council of Ministers stated that the document did not exist in the archives of the Albanian government.
"In response to your request, I would like to inform you that the Public Authority is not in possession of this proposal, to which you refer", is written in the response of the Coordinator for the Right to Information at the Council of Ministers.
BIRN also asked the Council of Ministers whether or not the proposal in question was sent on behalf of the Albanian government or as a personal proposal of Edi Rama. Through a spokesperson, the government refused to clarify who the proposal belonged to.
"Prime Minister Rama has made it clear about what, how, and what it is about," said Prime Minister's spokeswoman Manjola Hasa. "We have no further comment," she added.
For international relations experts, Edi Rama's proposal for Serbian municipalities does not seem to come from the Albanian state or the Council of Ministers.
"For it to be a proposal of Albania, it had to go through the Presidency, and if it was to be done by the government, it had to be voted on in the Council of Ministers", said Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Institute of Political Studies in Tirana.
Krasniqi said that it seemed to be about "a personal proposal" of the prime minister that factors the latter.
Rama's proposal for Serbian municipalities was met with skepticism and irony by the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and also by the President of Serbia, Vučić.
However, Rama presented it as an effort of American and European experts, which would resolve the "Gordian knot of dialogue" and which would pave the way for new recognition of Kosovo./BIRN
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