Democratic Party boycotts Conference of Chairmen: We have not been provided with any documents on the 2027 draft budget! Review requires transparency and time

The Democratic Party’s parliamentary group will not take part in the meeting of the Conference of Chairmen, claiming that lawmakers have not been provided with the 2027 draft budget or the accompanying documentation.

According to the Democratic Party, the meeting was called without respecting the 48-hour deadline stipulated in the Rules of Procedure of Parliament. The opposition is calling for the documents to be made available to lawmakers and for the budget review to be conducted transparently, with sufficient time for debate and analysis.

Press release from the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Party

Today, at 8:30 a.m., a meeting of the Conference of Chairmen of Parliament was called, at which the finance minister was scheduled to present the draft law on the State Budget for 2027 and the fiscal package.

We want to publicly clarify the reasons why the Democratic Party’s parliamentary group has decided not to take part in this meeting.

From the time the meeting was announced until midnight, lawmakers were not provided with any document concerning the draft budget that is supposedly to be presented.

Neither the draft laws, nor the explanatory reports, nor the financial documentation that should accompany an initiative of such importance.

In other words, members of the Parliament of Albania are being called upon to listen to the finance minister speak about a document they have had no opportunity to read, study or analyze.

And this is not how the Parliament of a democratic country should function.

Parliament is not the government’s conference hall. Lawmakers are not an invited audience for ministers’ presentations.

Our constitutional duty is to review, oversee, demand accountability and decide how Albanian citizens’ money is used.

Moreover, the meeting was announced only yesterday afternoon, to be held this morning.

Article 12, point 3, of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament expressly stipulates that meetings of the Conference of Chairmen should, as a rule, be held no earlier than 48 hours after they are announced.

This rule cannot be disregarded at the discretion of the Speaker of Parliament.

All the less so when it concerns the year’s most important financial law.

The state budget is not a formal document. It determines how much money will be collected from citizens and businesses, how it will be spent, which sectors will be funded and what the government’s real priorities will be.

Therefore, its review requires transparency, complete documentation, sufficient time and parliamentary debate.

There can be no debate without documents. There can be no parliamentary oversight without information. And lawmakers cannot be held accountable when they are denied the opportunity to perform their duty.

In our assessment, the way this meeting has been organized raises the reasonable suspicion that its purpose is not serious discussion of public finances, but the creation of a government propaganda event.

This is even more concerning amid the serious political crisis the country is experiencing.

Instead of guaranteeing the normal functioning of institutions, respect for the opposition and parliamentary oversight, the majority is seeking to make Parliament conform to the government’s political and media agenda.

We do not accept the institution of Parliament being used to create a façade of normality while its operating rules are not respected.

We want to be very clear.

The opposition is not refusing to discuss the budget. The opposition is refusing a procedure that strips parliamentary debate of its substance.

We demand that the draft law on the 2027 State Budget, together with all the accompanying documentation, be made immediately available to lawmakers.

We demand that the Conference of Chairmen be convened in accordance with the Rules of Procedure and that a realistic review schedule be ensured, with sufficient time for analysis, questions, discussions and amendments.

We demand that the process be transparent to the public, because the budget belongs neither to the government nor to the parliamentary majority.

The budget belongs to the Albanian citizens.

And finally, I want to address the Speaker of Parliament.

His duty is not to organize the ministers’ agenda, but to guarantee the rights of all lawmakers and the implementation of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

Respecting the law and parliamentary procedures is not a favor that the majority grants the opposition. It is the most basic duty of every institution.

For these reasons, the opposition will not take part in today’s meeting of the Conference of Chairmen.

Because the government has the right to propose the budget, but it does not have the right to dictate to Parliament how it should oversee it.