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Meta instr[?]ucts the prefects for the Local Elections. P. 5

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The EDU delegation officially began yesterday its long-awaited visit to the Albanian capital, awaited by PD membership. Led by Mishel Trandë, the delegation arrived in Tirana in separate groups, to meet with the Democratic Party leader, Sali Berisha, yesterday afternoon at the blue headquarters. Meanwhile, because the meeting lasted unexpectedly long, meetings with the PD reformist MPs and their supporters within the party took place later than planned. Not much has emerged from this meeting at the PD headquarters, if only because the European democrats will speak for themselves about everything they discussed and observed. P. 5

The state has put a noose around its citizens’ necks. Just to obtain a simple tax document, a person has to be sent from office to office for days. They are made to go back and forth until, finally, they have had enough, without managing to get anything done. Endless delays. Being shunted from one office to another. And, ironically, nothing but smiles and standard phrases: “Come back another time.” There are plenty of examples one could give from the bureaucratic practices of public officials. But one Tirana resident, whose “soul has been worn out” by being sent from office to office in an effort to get a car license plate, describes his endless ordeal. He bought the car in another district of the country and applied to exchange its plate for a Tirana one, in accordance with his permanent place of residence. P. 2

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Smuggling and corruption have been described as Albania’s greatest ills. This fact is acknowledged by certain bodies within the Government, the opposition, and foreigners as well. Albania’s friends have twice drawn the Government’s attention to the need to fight corruption and smuggling; otherwise, funding from donors will be reduced to a minimum. Former Prime Minister Majko has openly said that the state administration is corrupt. Finance Minister Angjeli says the same in both the nine-month customs review and the review of its accounting. Meanwhile, according to Prime Minister Ilir Meta, “Albania is not the ‘black sheep’ of corruption, nor the place where smuggling begins or ends.” The head of state made this statement yesterday at the conference “The Three-Year Strategy of the Albanian Customs Service.” Meta appears satisfied with the revenue collected by customs, which he compares with previous years, when its performance was much worse. “I consider the campaign that has recently begun not only in Albania, but also in certain countries around it, absurd...” P. 9 Caricature. The cart reads “Corruption”; the horse: “Corrupt M.T.”; the boxes: “CUSTOMS,” “DRUGS,” “TENDER,” “FUELS,” “SPEEDBOATS.”