Latest from albania

Ivana Živkovi?, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator and Director for the Regional Bureau for Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States of UNDP, will visit Albania from September 9 to 12, 2024. During her visit, Ms. Živkovi? will meet with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, cabinet ministers, international development partners, and UNDP’s local partners.

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I honestly don't understand why Serbia decided to buy 12 Rafale military planes from France when Serbia is not allowed to use those planes against NATO members! And as far as I know geography, all of Serbia's neighbors, except for Bosnia and Herzegovina, are members of the NATO alliance. While one of the largest NATO bases is located in Kosovo!  I do not believe that this elementary fact is not known to the people of Serbia (president, prime minister, defense minister, military commanders...). We do not see a single possible situation in which Serbia could use those military planes paid for by itself. I have the impression that, for some other, political and not military reasons, 2.7 billion euros were wasted.

On an action day conducted on 2 September 2024 across Romania, law enforcement executed 40 search warrants and intercepted 19 members of a criminal network engaged in migrant smuggling. Europol supported this operation, which is the result of a common investigation between Hungarian, Italian, Romanian and Slovenian authorities. The criminals concealed the migrants among merchandise or squeezed them into compartments in modified vehicles, displaying the utmost disregard for their safety and well-being.

Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs

The 2024 budget was changed for the second time with a normative act that increases revenues by about Lek 27.2 billion and the same amount of expenses. The budget deficit remained unchanged.According to data made public by the Finance Ministry, most of the additional amount of about Lek 6.6 billion goes as an addition to the budget of the Ministry of Infrastructure, which after the changes reached Lek 74.3 billion, from Lek 67.7 billion.The total increase went to the road transport program, which increased by Lek 6.6 billion or Euro 65 million. The funds for this program with the new changes reach Lek 33 billion from the Lek 26 billion that were in the current budget.According to the normative act, the government units can start the fund procurement procedure in September of the current year, if the funds have been allocated/registered in the treasury system for the year 2025 and beyond, provided that this contract becomes effective only after the approval of the relevant budget law."An addition of Lek 600 million in the item "Capital expenditure" in the "Management of drainage and irrigation infrastructure" program of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is granted by DCM for the financing of facilities, equipment, and machinery of the irrigation infrastructure and drainage, as well as flood protection works for municipalities.A fund of Lek 500 million is added to "Rural development, supporting agricultural production, livestock, agro-industry, and marketing" for the support scheme with grants for investments in farms, in the full value of Lek 1,500 million, which is also financed in the next budget years."An additional amount of Lek 150 million goes to the "Sports Development" program of the ministry responsible for sports.The fund for the indexation of pensions is estimated at Lek 4,137 million and the bonus for pensioners is Lek 3,650 million. This fund is divided between the schemes, according to the determinations in the decision of the Council of Ministers.The use of this fund is made according to the provisions in article 61, of law no. 7703, dated 11.5.1993, "On social security in the Republic of Albania", as amended.The administrative expenses, as part of the total expenses for the social security scheme, are no more than Lek 3,700 million and are divided according to the schemes, in proportion to the direct expenses.From the unused expropriation fund in the account of the Bank of Albania, the sum of Lek 8,000 million is transferred to the budget as non-tax income.

Telegram boss and founder Pavel Durov has been placed under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organised crime on the messaging app, Paris prosecutors say.

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