The EU blocks 112 million euros for Albania, DP appeals to farmers: Stand up and stand by the opposition

The member of the Presidency of the Democratic Party, Mimoza Hajdarmataj, today called on the farmers to side with the opposition, after OLAF blocked 112 million euros for Albania in aid to agriculture.

The blocking came after the OLAF investigation that proved the abuses of IPARD funds. She emphasized that the Democratic Party has previously denounced this greed of power that takes away from the farmer and gives the agricultural funds to the patronage and the oligarch.

STATEMENT:

From the blue headquarters, Hajdarmataj said that the EU is already demanding the return of 33 million euros stolen by Rama's government. 

33 million euros stolen by the government with its patronages of the Ministry of Agriculture will be returned to where they came from.

This is the money that the EU has allocated to Albania as part of the IPARD Agriculture funds, but it has been stolen or abused in various forms.

OLAF, the organization that has carried out investigations on agricultural funds, has found that out of 47 million abused throughout the EU, 33 million belong to Albania.

It's no surprise: Renaissance has a heavy hand and has bruised Albania's back!

Olaf emphasizes that during the application of the IPARD II funds of the first and second installments, serious violations of the following types were found:

* Applicants are required to pay a significant portion of the grant to a local consulting company;

* Contracts are awarded without competition, or through a rigged competition with false bids,

* There are inflated prices and violations of contractual rules.

After an investigation launched years ago, OLAF recommended that the European Commission consider illegal part of the financing of the First and Second Calls of IPARD II in the amount of 33 million euros.

OLAF has an even tougher recommendation:

The EU should stop the allocation of 112 million euros of funding for IPARD III, until the Albanian state takes measures to protect the financial interests of the EU from any illegal activity.

The Democratic Party has previously denounced this greed of the government that takes away the farmer and gives the agricultural funds to the patronage and the oligarch.

Albanian farmers are the most discriminated in the region in terms of subsidies (4 times less than Kosovo) and the return of payments made for IPARD II and the suspension of IPARD III is an alarm for them and the agricultural sector.

Unprecedented in its thievery, this greedy government is getting its hands on what should have been one of the pillars of the national economy.

With this greed to devour every possible penny, "Rilindja" is forcing farmers to throw their crops in the canals and leave the country.

This is also the goal: rob and depopulate.

The Democratic Party called on the farmers to stand up and stand by the opposition. This government that steals those who toil in the fields of the hills to give to the greedy with connections to power, should be thrown into the ditch like farmers throw away their rotten produce.