2013 REPORT / SPENDING IN DIPLOMACY, 6.5 MILLION LEK FOR NATO Foreign Ministry budget, 3.5 million lek Monitoring of first-half spending made public: Embassies, 5.9 million lek for furniture and offices. Bushati: 100 thousand euro for the maternity hospital in Preshevë By DARINA TANUSHI The Albanian government spent about 3.5 million new lek from its budget on lobbying for the recognition of Kosovo. This figure was spent in the first six months of 2013. According to the report published on the online page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the first part of 2013, when the “Berisha” government was still in office, a total of 8,484,000 lek had been planned in the budget. Meanwhile, there is still another part of the fund, amounting to 6 million lek, which was spent on Kosovo’s participation in regional initiatives and international organizations, out of the total fund of 12,160,000 lek. The audit published for 2012 and the first half of 2013 shows that a large share of the funds was used to pay for our country’s membership in various organizations or political matters. In total, the planned expenses for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amount to 2,195,268,000 lek for all of 2013. Meanwhile, it has still not been published... Continued on page 3