e-Albania runs empty/ Businesses spend the day off with the "online state that doesn't work"

2026-03-16 21:51:50, Aktualitet CNA

e-Albania runs empty/ Businesses spend the day off with the "online state

Today is an official holiday, because "Summer Day" fell on a Saturday and, according to the law, there is no work on Monday either.

Friday is another holiday because it's the Eid holiday. Sunday is the Novruz holiday, so next Monday is another holiday.

And while the administration enjoys the many days off and the airport is overcrowded, businesses spent the weekend and even today trying to access E-Albania for services that they barely manage to get, if they're lucky, or sitting and staring at a screen that spins blank and neither gives nor receives.

The main problem, says an economist, is with uploading documents.

The system creates problems with applications for maternity reports or other short-term benefits. Even when it seems like the application has been successfully completed with a report uploaded, the receiving party does not see the document in the system and it seems like the problem is with the business that does not upload the document.

This situation is causing delays in the payment of reports for new mothers or employees who benefit from the social security scheme. It also prevents the receipt of reports from people who are absent from work due to health problems.

The inability to upload documents has also affected individuals, who cannot apply for various services.

There are also continuing problems with self-care, with businesses unable to see their invoices, now that the deadline for submitting their 2025 balance sheets is approaching. Even before, the self-care system, which is widely used by businesses, was not functional, hindering their activity.

Although the transition of many services online was made with the intention of facilitating businesses, they are turning into a nightmare for them. In July last year, for many days, online submission of balance sheets to the National Business Center was impossible. In January of this year, businesses could not reconcile invoices in the self-care system, and self-employed individuals could not issue invoices, and import invoices were not even fiscalized.

Ironically, Albania ranks among the countries that use online e-government services the most.

According to Eurostat data, which are available for Albania for 2024 (for EU countries, data for 2025 have been released), 78% of Albanian citizens interacted with public authorities online during the previous 12 months, compared to 72%, which was the European Union average. However, it seems that the survey does not reveal that there is real time lost from using these services, as their 24-hour operation is not guaranteed and the system often just runs idle!/Monitor.al