With a European passport, but without IPARD funds for agriculture

Two years ago, as Albania was waiting to launch the IPARD III agricultural support program with 146 million euros in grants, the European Commission suspended the funds, based on suspicions of corruption.

The government has been trying to downplay this extreme measure against Albania for two years. At the height of the election campaign, Prime Minister Edi Rama tried to soften public perception of the issue, presenting it as a technical problem rather than a consequence of possible corruption.

"The European Commission has a fund auditing structure that has found some irregularities and has requested that we address the irregularities from a systemic point of view. And we are doing exactly that," Rama said during a television interview.

The truth is that the European Commission has raised serious suspicions of misuse of funds and not simply "technical irregularities". For this reason, in July 2023, the EC temporarily suspended funding until confidence in the functioning of the Albanian structures that manage the funds was restored.

In a letter addressed to the Albanian government at the time, Brussels informed about serious shortcomings in the functioning of the internal control system for the implementation and control of IPARD II funds in Albania.

In fact, in a special reaction to Faktoje, the European Commission confirmed at the time that the decision for Albania was unprecedented.

Since then, Albanian authorities have been moving to meet the requirements and conditions that must be met in order for the country to regain the funds that were cut off for Albanian agriculture.

The Albanian government must, among other things, demonstrate that it respects the principles of sound financial management, transparency and non-discrimination, as well as guarantee the protection of the EU's financial interests, by implementing international best practices that enable the prevention, identification, reporting and correction of fraudulent irregularities.

IPARD 'oxygen' for agriculture

The IPARD agricultural support program provides grants to assist the agricultural sector for all countries that are in the process of joining the European Union.

Albania is one of the five countries benefiting from grant support. Through the IPARD II program, which was implemented between 2014 and 2020, our country benefited from over 71 million euros.

But for two years now, payments to Albanian agriculture for IPARD II have been suspended, and at the same time, funds of 146 million euros for the IPARD III program have been 'frozen'. This issue has raised concerns among stakeholders in the field, who are demanding swift action from institutions to unblock the funds and increase support for the sector.

"IPARD funds were the only source of oxygen for Albanian agriculture, as budgetary support is negligible. Institutions must assume their responsibilities so that the European Commission can open these funds again as soon as possible," says Eduard Sharka, president of the Farmers' Association.

"The national funds that will become accessible at the beginning of the year will need to be reviewed based on the real needs of this sector, if we want it to continue to be a priority sector," adds agricultural expert Esmeralda Ballesha.

In addition to the lack of IPARD funds, the agricultural sector in Albania is also facing the serious consequences of mass emigration and adverse fiscal policies. At the end of last year, official data from the Institute of Statistics documented the crisis in agriculture.

According to INSTAT, in the fourth quarter of last year, agricultural production in Albania contracted by 2.7% in annual terms.

cONcluSiON

Prime Minister Edi Rama's statement that the European Commission has found "only irregularities" and not problems of a corrupt nature is untrue. Official documents and decisions of the European Commission show that the decision to suspend IPARD funds was taken for deep systemic reasons and suspicions of corruption, not just for technical shortcomings./Faktoje.al