Minister Hoxha invites the Government Cabinet to commit itself to implementing the measures for the SAA implementation

“From the conclusions of the recent meeting of the Council, where concrete deadlines were given for the performance of certain actions, it results that with the exception of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the other institutions did not comply with the deadlines and as a result there is stagnation in this process”, said Minister Hoxha, expressing her concern as we are on the eve of starting discussions with the European Commission to look at the opportunities for ERA 2.

“A review of the ERA priorities and the drafting of a new Action Plan for the coming year have been foreseen for September and October. Based on the initial discussions we have conducted with the European Commission, this process should be completed by the end of October. Thereafter, it is expected to launch the implementation of the ERA priorities and the annual action plan for their implementation at the upcoming meeting for the High-Level Dialogue on Key Priorities, to be co-chaired by Prime Minister Haradinaj and Commissioner Hahn”, said Minister Hoxha.

Minister Hoxha said that “the aim is to reduce the number of priorities, including the current priorities that we have not managed to meet and some new priorities proposed by the European Commission and set by our institutions”.

“We should aim to make the action plan more realistic, focusing on key reforms that can be implemented within a year. Even now I take the opportunity to ask all the institutions to propose in the action plan only the actions that can be implemented, because our work and success will be measured based on the priorities we set. The structure of the ERA will remain the same, i.e. having the three existing pillars: Good Governance and Rule of Law, Competitiveness and Investment Climate, and Employment and Education”, said Minister Hoxha.

Regarding the implementation of the SAA, Minister Hoxha stressed that more commitment is needed because, in the framework of the IPA 2 Programme on Direct Budget Support to the Public Administration Reform, we have pledged to achieve an SAA Programme implementation rate of at least 60% for this year.

“Based on the findings of this report, only 12.78% of all planned measures were implemented by the end of June, i.e. only 68 measures”, said Minister Hoxha, while regarding the state of implementation of legislative reforms, she stressed that “the findings show that we have achieved an implementation rate of only 18.06%, since only 26 out of 144 planned legislative measures have been implemented”.

Minister Hoxha stressed that regarding the implementation of other reforms, the findings show that an implementation rate of only 10.82% has been achieved, as only 42 out of 388 planned implementing measures have been implemented.

The Minister asked before the Government Cabinet “to jointly focus on these measures and do everything we can to improve the SAA Programme implementation rate and fulfil the pledge of achieving a 60% implementation rate, although we have only a few months until the end of the year”.

“The Ministry of European Integration remains committed to assisting the institutions as much as possible for better performance in the implementation of the program, but of course, the main burden and work belongs to the respective institutions”, said Minister Hoxha while inviting the participants to report on the measures they should undertake for the implementation of the SAA Programme during the remaining months.

The ministers reported and presented the proposals and measures they will undertake to implement the SAA.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Haradinaj and Minister Hoxha held a press conference.