Edi Rama

New Beginning

Albania President - elect, Bajram Begaj. Photo credits: Edi Rama Facebook

After the often turbulent and anything-but-dull five year term of Ilir Meta as President of Albania, is the country about to get a 'normal' president? On Saturday June 4, Albania's Parliament elected Bajram Begaj as the country's new President, due to take office at the end of July.

The summit is attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, prime ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, Dimitar Kovacevski and Edi Rama, as well as officials from Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
President Vucic said that he had meetings with representatives of countries that are not yet official members of the Open Balkans.

A two-day summit of the regional initiative Open Balkans begins today in Ohrid, to be attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Ministers of North Macedonia and Albania Dimitar Kovacevski and Edi Rama, as well as officials from Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Albania's parliament is set to vote for a new president on Saturday, but no candidates' names are known or even rumoured, less than 24 hours ahead of the vote.

The building of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.  Photo: EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER

Had the company done that, "this Court would have had the benefit of the views of the national courts", the ruling read.

The ECHR said the company had failed to take appropriate steps to enable national courts to fulfil their fundamental role.

The last chance for Albania's main opposition Democratic Party to propose names for the new President - who must be elected in June - expired on Sunday, when it failed to do so, in the third round of the election.

The date for a fourth session is yet to be decided. Democratic Party parliamentarians did not show up to vote in the parliament.

Albania's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Olta Xhacka, said Albania was joining EU and Western sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, presenting its raft of measures on Sunday.

Albania's President, Ilir Meta, will end his mandate in office after winning a Constitutional Court battle with the ruling Socialist Party, which dismissed him via a vote in parliament nine months ago.

In a verdict on Wednesday, the Court said the accusations made against Meta "do not constitute serious violation of the constitution".

A BIRN Freedom of Information Request has revealed that Prime Minister Edi Rama on 29 September last year appointed his own former spokesperson, Endri Fuga, as head of the newly established Media and Information Agency, MIA. The appointment was not published and was disclosed only recently following the FOI request.

Unfortunately, for the past 30 years, both international and Albanian leaders have often tipped the scales of justice to serve their respective political agendas.