Socialists finally alone in the local elections. Neritan Ceka and Skënder Gjinushi abandon the coalition after the SP’s indifference The Socialists are taking a huge risk in the way they have chosen their allies in politics, the media, and civil society page 2 —

Page 7 Defence ministers Gjoni and Xохахopulos yesterday at the ceremony marking the departure of the Greek Company photo P. ILO Defence ministers Gjoni and Xохахopulos yesterday at the ceremony marking the departure of the Greek Company. photo P. ILO

Yesterday, the SP leadership decided that the independent Edi Rama, currently Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, would be its candidate for mayor of the capital. Sources within the SP report that the candidacy of Luan Rama for minister was rejected by the Socialist MP himself. Since the law does not allow Minister Rama to remain in the ministerial seat once he is registered with the CEC, his resignation is expected between 10 and 15 August. The most serious candidates being mentioned for the post in question are Ardit Gjebrea and Blendi Fevziu. The former is one of the country’s best-known artists, while the latter is an excellent journalist at TV Klan, a private television station owned by a French-Albanian company.

By Ilir META Prime Minister of Albania On 31 July, one year will have passed since the Sarajevo Summit and the announcement of the declaration, through which the countries of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance and those of Southeastern Europe committed themselves to the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. After a year on this path, today we can take stock of where we have come from and where we are going. We all remember, a little more than a year ago, the horrors of the massacres in Kosovo, the hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced from everything and violently driven from their homes, streaming into Morinë or dying for a drop of water in Bllacë. We cannot erase from our memories the flights of military aircraft and the bombings in Yugoslavia. We have never been so close to the dread of war as we were in those days last year. And yet, like a bad dream, this dread too came to an end; the Serbs were forced to withdraw from Kosovo and the refugees returned to their destroyed homes. This was the moment that made everyone reflect. Western countries called on the Balkan countries to unite in a pact aimed at reconstruction, peace, cooperation, democracy, and prosperity in a region so exhausted by wars and conflicts over the last ten years. Thus, for the first time, a process of inclusion began for the Balkans, whose climate was to be one of tolerance, coexistence, and good-neighbourly relations between two peoples with different ethnic, cultural, and religious characteristics, who had hated one another so deeply over the past ten years. The Pact offers the Balkans the greatest support ever given by the Western powers. Moreover, the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic structures were opening their doors to the region’s swiftest possible inclusion among them. But this time, unlike before, the countries of Southeastern Europe themselves become the masters of this process. First of all, they must extend a hand to one another and commit to carrying out, with due seriousness, the necessary reforms for democratization and a market economy. Likewise, the Pact calls for much more intensive cooperation among the countries of the region in the fields of security and the fight against corruption and organized crime. The Pact is the best incentive for economic cooperation in the region and for creating a common area in which goods, people, and services can move freely. (continued on page 2)