Europe: Enough, we already paid for your roads
The European Union refuses to pay Albania’s balance of payments
The rejected 25 million dollars could cost many public administration employees their jobs
"The European Union will not pay the 25 million dollars needed to cover the balance of payments for 1996," official sources close to the Albanian side, which is supplied with funds, told "Koha Jonë" yesterday. According to official sources made close after the return of the "Meksi 2" government, the European Union, from the external financing allocated for the balance of payments, with 25,000,000 USD, will transfer 5,845,000 USD to Albania, earmarked as foreign aid, but now in 1997 the balance of payments for 1996 would be a matter for the "Meksi 2" government.
When asked whether the delegations and foreign countries had been informed about this refusal, one of the Albanian officials said that the allocation of payments for the balance of payments for 1996 continues also for 1997, with the blockage still amounting to 1,290,000 USD, but so far no discussion has yet begun in the competent conclusions. Nevertheless, this is the first unofficial, but total, signal for the post-26 May government.
The Albanian state appears to have started running out of money. According to official sources made close after the return of the "Meksi 2" government, the new cabinet of Dr. Meksi has had to seek a state administration in disguise. This means that the state administration, which numbers close to 180,000[?] state employees, at least 40,000 of them could be paid with foreign funds. The indicators of state finances, which for personnel expenditures can no longer continue to fall any further, have forced the government to take drastic measures to reduce staff on a large scale. This means that, in addition to the state administration, a large number of studies and institutions may also be on the verge of being shut down, having so far been kept alive through the state budget fund.
26 May mingu?[?] PD. Separated into dictionaries the whole