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"Strategic investments have been promised"/ Zhupa: Tourism is being used as an alibi for corrupt schemes

2025-10-28 19:19:00, Politikë CNA

"Strategic investments have been promised"/ Zhupa: Tourism is being

Democratic Party MP Ina Zhupa stated at the twentieth meeting of the Albania - European Union Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee that tourism is being used as an alibi for corrupt schemes.

Zhupa said that strategic investors during the electoral campaign targeted votes in their areas, where they promised investments in exchange for votes.

Further, the MP stated that 80 thousand euros are taken from citizens' taxes every day in connection with the incinerator affair.

 

 

Zhupa's full speech

 

Tourism is being used as an alibi for corrupt and preferential schemes of “strategic investments”. The latter have often benefited from this status in a marked lack of competitive procedures and public transparency. Above all, it is about persons vested with political power, as in the case of the husband of the former Foreign Minister, Mrs. Xhaçka, or for money laundering from organized crime through “prestanoma” individuals, without a history of justifiable financial capital.

During the electoral campaign, strategic investors targeted votes in their constituencies. In my constituency, new strategic investments were promised in Lekures and Ksamil.

The mega-affair of the Vlora airport concession has been proven with state documents as a fictitious procedure, with fictitious companies and with actions carried out openly in fraud of the law. The project, already publicly corrupt and in violation of the SAA, due to lack of competition in the tender, remains a risk to the biodiversity, flora and fauna of the Narta lagoon.

On the other hand, for months the media has been reporting that the construction site is out of work, recalling that Munich Airport has withdrawn from supervision, due to pressure over violations of international conventions and environmental risk. The damage currently caused, even if the project is not completed, will create long-term and quite serious pollution for the environment of the protected area.

Infrastructure projects remain corrupt projects that have not risen to the level of turning Albania into a tourist destination. They are more investigative files than fruitful investments for the country.

Law No. 81/2017 “On Protected Areas” was drafted in the spirit of European legislation and principles, with the assistance of experts. To date, no report or study analysis has been presented that would demonstrate the difficulties in implementing the law or potential problems on the ground.

So, there was clearly no reason or real concern to propose drastic changes to this legal framework. And even less was it necessary for these changes to be made without consulting with experts and responsible domestic or foreign institutions.

Regarding the environment, we recall that in the electoral year, at least 1 billion and 200 thousand cannabis roots have been determined to be planted, more than ever before in history. And all of these, no longer clandestine plants, but plants planted with a "state certificate". The drug government has illegally distributed permits for the planting of over 29,000 hectares of drugs, while the law only provides for 200 hectares in total. This action was a form of massive vote buying, contrary to the law and international conventions.

In Albania, millions of euros have been spent, and continue to be spent, on the introduction of the incineration method. Now, without accepting failure, we continue to pay the costs of corruption. In fact, no incinerator is functioning: neither the one in Elbasan, nor the one in Fier, while the one in Tirana does not even exist, but it receives 80 thousand euros every day from citizens' taxes. A 430 million euro affair, while the waste problem has become not only an environmental problem, but also a deep corruption problem. Many have ended up in prison, and others will go.

The European Union does not support corrupt affairs that hide behind the pretense of developing tourism, the environment, and the integration process./CNA





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