Rama on the Sazan project: Public land has not been sold and remains state property; Albania will not deviate from EU standards

In today’s “Flasim” podcast, Prime Minister Edi Rama returned to his interview with Deutsche Welle, which he said had been influenced by what he described as inaccurate information regarding the project.

Rama said that during his stay in Bochum, Germany, where he took part in the “Ruhr Summit,” he was asked about the Kushner project. He clarified that Zvërnec is private land, while Sazan is state property, and that the final agreement has not yet been concluded.

According to him, the Albanian state will continue to remain the owner of the land and will enter the venture as a partner. He stressed that any development will be subject to an environmental impact assessment and monitoring by the European Commission, emphasizing that Albania has no interest in taking actions contrary to the criteria for membership in the European Union.

“Another moment worth noting from the week was the visit to Bochum, Germany, at the invitation of the organizers of the international technology summit ‘Ruhr Summit,’ where I was invited to present the transformations we have made in Albania through digitalization and the way we have modernized and are modernizing governance through digitalization and, most recently, through the introduction of Artificial Intelligence.

Another moment during that visit was the meeting with the minister-president of the state, Hendrik Wüst, one of the most prominent figures in Germany’s CDU and a friend interested in developments in Albania and the progress of the Western Balkans’ accession process, with whom we spoke both about this aspect — namely Germany’s support in closing the negotiation chapters — and about expanding bilateral relations with Germany through relations with the regions.

But, without a doubt, the ‘cherry on top’ of this visit was the surprise in the interview with the journalist from Deutsche Welle’s international section, where, for the sake of the truth, I was surprised by the way the journalist had completely ‘swallowed’ the stew of falsehoods regarding Zvërnec and regarding the relationship between the government and the company represented by Jared Kushner, while not hiding that she belonged to the broad camp of all those who turned Albania into an arena to wage their ‘war’ against Trump, whether in America, Australia, or even Europe.

I was confronted with questions such as: ‘How can public land be privatized, be sold?’ — something that has neither happened nor is there any reason for it to happen. Zvërnec is private land, Sazan is public land, where we still have not finalized the agreement. Precisely because we are negotiating the partnership and the state, which will always remain the owner of the land, in order for the agreement to be implemented, will have to be a shareholder in the venture.

So, no sale of public land has even been requested. Then the whole part that has to do with protected areas, with Chapter 27, with how aware we are or what we are capable of sacrificing — even the European Union itself — in order to carry out the project, is a major logical absurdity. Meanwhile, the story is quite simple. Anyone who is very clear, or even somewhat clear, about the fact that I am here to lead Albania toward membership in the European Union, the fact that we have a very strong popular mandate to accomplish this historic mission, the fact that this historic mission is incomparable and not equivalent to anything else, is also very clear about the fact that there is no chance Albania will take steps or pursue developments that run counter to the standards and criteria of the European Union.

In this specific case, it is all a vortex that is being stirred and stirred and stirred for purposes that are now clearly something else, while we are obliged by those standards to carry out the environmental impact assessment, which we are doing; we are obliged by those standards to meet all the criteria of the European Union. So, to put it this way, the ‘safeguard’ for all those who are concerned is there; it is precisely the European Commission, which has so far been continuously informed of the facts and sees no reason for alarm, because it is very clear that the whole process will be carried out in harmony with the monitoring process of the European Commission,” Rama said.