A high level of Albanian-German cooperation As announced by the Press and Information Office attached to the President of the Republic, from 28 February to 1 March, at the invitation of President Berisha, President of the FRG Roman Herzog will come to our country for a two-day official and friendly visit. This is a historic visit. It is the first visit by the German Head of State to Albania and expresses the high level of friendship and cooperation that exists between Albania and Germany, as well as making a major new contribution to their further development. President Herzog’s visit to Albania is also a strong expression of support for Albania by the President, Government and German nation in its path toward building democracy and a market economy. During the visit, in addition to official talks, President Herzog will address Parliament and visit Tirana and other cities in the country. PROF.DR. ROMAN HERZOG — President of the Federal Republic of Germany Roman Herzog has been President of Germany since 1 July 1994. He was born on 5 April 1934 in the city of Landshut, Bavaria. He completed his initial studies in law in Munich and in 1958 worked on his doctorate at the University of Munich. For about eight years Herzog worked as an assistant in the field of legal studies at the University of Munich, and was also a lecturer at that university. From 1966 to 1969 Roman Herzog was a professor of public law at the University of Berlin. Afterwards, for about five years, he was a professor of political science at the College of Administrative Sciences in Speyer. During the following ten years Herzog was chairman of the Chamber for Public Responsibility in the Protestant Church of Germany. He was an official representative of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as Minister of Education, Culture and Sport in the state of Baden Württemberg. From 1980 to 1983 Herzog was elected a member of the Landstag, the Parliament of Baden Württemberg, and its Minister of the Interior. For more than 12 years Roman Herzog was vice-president and president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, based in Karlsruhe. Prof. Dr Roman Herzog

Attacks on the Meksi government are attacks on reform In less than three years in government, Mr. Meksi’s government faced extraordinary difficulties. It came to power after the country had been engulfed by a powerful wave of devastation on every front: chaos, anarchy, crime, poverty, hunger, exoduses, long queues and runaway inflation. In 1992, more than 60% of Albania’s budget was made up of handouts and humanitarian aid; the number of unemployed reached over 730,000, and only 20% of agricultural land had been worked and planted. But despite these circumstances (incomparable to those of any other country in Eastern Europe), in the first weeks of its existence the Meksi government drafted, on the basis of the DP’s programs, and presented to Parliament and the Albanian people an ambitious program of deep and comprehensive reforms, which the social-communists and anti-reform forces mocked and ridiculed, while the European Commission, the IMF and the World Bank described it as a First: Albania’s cooperation with EU countries, the USA and other friendly countries will reach a new, higher level. The major political events of this year will be: the visit to Albania of German President Roman Herzog and of several other heads of friendly states, as well as high-level visits by Albanian authorities to these countries. All of this bears witness to achievements and to the consolidation of new levels in Albania’s relations with Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA and other European countries and friendly partners. Second: Albania began the year by successfully conducting the first multilateral maneuvers in its history, in which military units from the main NATO countries—the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Italy—took part (along with observers from a number of other countries in the region and in Europe). During this year, bilateral cooperation with these countries in the fields of security and defense will continue to Electricity, both the interruptions to the privatization of these systems and the interruptions to new investments in the water-supply systems and electricity networks of Tirana, Durres, Korca, Kavaja, Shkodra and other areas of the country. The reform’s achievements to date, as well as the ambitious objectives the Meksi government set out for 1995, which could not even have been imagined two or three years ago, have reduced to nothing and deep despair all the predictions, claims and deceptions of the owls of Albanian democracy, according to whom Albania is becoming isolated, reform is stalling, a new generation is being passed over, etc., etc. It is precisely because of the great and historic achievements made over these three years by the Democratic Party government and the forces of the democratic coalition, and because of the ambitious objectives it has announced for 1995—not because of its failures or shortcomings—that it has become the target of an unrestrained, vicious, even bandit-like and immoral campaign of attacks by political forces and other social groups, baptized by Enver and Nexhmija, who are calling for early elections. These adventurers without substance forget that reform is not something to be toyed with: it is Albania’s present and future, and their tragic end. Today, in the Albanian Parliament, hardened spies of the State Security service who supplied weapons to the Serbian-Macedonian intelligence services, and about whom Albanian justice will soon deliver its verdict, make accusations following the “SAREX’95” maneuvers. They accuse the Minister of Defense of supposedly having sent weapons to Serbia. Others accuse the government of being involved in the Arsidi scandal, rather than those who, when they held office, awarded the Arsidi mandate to their prime ministers Nano and Ahmeti to steal the money; Albanian justice will make it clear exactly where the stolen money went. [the text continues outside the visible frame] presented to the Albanian Parliament and people an ambitious program of profound and ridiculed, while the European Union an excellent program. Time and developments over these three years ultimately proved it to be a program of national salvation, the program that pulled the country out of the abysses into which it was rolling. By implementing this program, the Meksi government managed in a short time to overcome the profound consequences of half a century of isolation, achieve macroeconomic stability, restore hope and dignity to the country (is this a typo? alms and hunger), establish order and calm, stabilize the currency and inflation, guarantee the fastest economic growth on the continent, draft hundreds and hundreds of laws, and carry out profound institutional reforms. It moved Albania, where investment had been prohibited, from the last position it occupied to a desirable position in economic cooperation with other countries and foreign investors. It would be absurd to think that no shortcomings, weaknesses and serious difficulties were observed during this period, for which the government has borne and continues to bear responsibility; equally, it is extremely base and cynical to deny its historic achievements or to claim that in two or three years it would place the country in developed Europe and overcome the obstacles of the centuries-old backwardness we inherited. But the achievements to date were not only beneficial for the country; they have also laid the foundations for a different future for Albania, one of rapid and sound development, and this is one of the greatest beginnings of Albanian democracy. 1995 is the most important year for carrying out the Meksi government's program. This year, achievements will be greater, and they lie ahead in the history of our country. They can be summarized in the following areas of profound and ridiculed, while the European Union investors. Eighth: ...

Failed “ZP” propaganda cannot fool anyone Albania will be admitted to the Council of Europe whether or not the leaders of Albanian communism want it Very soon after the coalition of anti-communist democratic forces appeared on the political scene, Albania also won the status of associate member of the Council of Europe. It was the wish of all Albanians who had emerged from the overthrow of communism, who had cried, “We want Albania to be like all of Europe,” that would shape the foreign-policy course of the democratic government that emerged from the 22 March elections. Albania had to overcome many difficulties on the road to Europe for reasons that are well known. Albania’s application to join the Council of Europe ranks last among the applications of the other former communist countries, for the simple reason that our country had been removed from the political scene of Eastern Europe. Albania was then branded with all kinds of vile, terrorist labels by the rest of the world, being isolated mainly from the West; and so, when the Iron Curtain fell, certain red missionaries went around the world with money stolen from the people, spewing bile against their own country and trying to denigrate Albania’s fragile democracy. The red leaders openly showed through their efforts that they were against Albania’s integration into Europe because they saw it as a major threat to their political positions. Today, shamelessly, they ask: “Why is Albania’s admission to the Council of Europe being delayed?” and blame the democratic government and the PD. But Albanians should know the truth clearly—this is the fact. On 7 September 1993, at a meeting in Albania between representatives of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Relations with Non-Member Countries and representatives of parliamentary groups, the chairman of the PS parliamentary group, N.Dokle, answered the question from the head of the delegation, Mr. David Atkinson, “Do you think Albania is ready to be admitted to the Council of Europe?” as follows: “It is the wish of the PS and its parliamentary group that Albania be soon as possible... but we are not ashamed before Europe, nor is Europe ashamed of us...”. “The apple should be picked when it is as ripe as possible.” (“ZP,” 9 September 1993). It could hardly have been put more clearly: “with regret,” as Dokle says, Albania should not enter the Council of Europe. At that meeting, PD chairman Eduard Selami, expressing his regret at “Albanian” Dokle’s position in front of the foreign delegation, added: “This act has nothing to do with, and is not, the membership of the PD, as someone might think out of blindness and party jealousy. It is an act in the interests of all Albanians” (“RD,” 9 September 1993). The following day, on 8 September, at his press conference, Mr. Atkinson was asked whether there was any European party that wished its country not to become a member of the Council of Europe. He replied: “I cannot imagine a party refusing to allow its country to become a member. That would be a disgrace for a party that would sell its country so cheaply.” This would also be the best answer to the unprecedented act of the PS leaders, the only party in Europe that opposes its country’s integration into the European family. During his stay, Atkinson would visit the city of Fundamental Human Rights, where (Continued on page 2) military units from the leading NATO countries—the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Italy (and participants from a series of other countries in the region and the field of security and defense will continue to increase, demonstrating the consolidation of Albania’s role in the Balkans as well as the confidence of our country’s main European partners. Third: Thanks to the foreign policy it has pursued—openness, integration and sound strengthening—and the profound reforms it has carried out in the political, economic, institutional and legislative fields, Albania, in the view of the leaders of the Council of Europe and the majority of its member countries, will be admitted to the Council this year. Fourth: 1995 has been declared the year of mass privatization of the economy through privatization by value. Free enterprise and the market economy will occupy unprecedentedly large spaces in this process. More than one million Albanians will become owners through the process and of national wealth through value securities. The government has prepared, and will submit to Parliament, the entire package of laws necessary for privatizing the country’s medium-sized and large enterprises, as well as laws on joint-stock companies, concessions, the securities market, the investment fund, and the privatization of the economy’s main sectors. Fifth: This year marks the compensation of owners and the return of properties, giving private property a new and dominant dimension in Albania. Sixth: This year will be accompanied by a significant increase in foreign investment in Albania. Thus, around 80 million dollars will be invested solely in improving roads and irrigation systems, and there will also be a major improvement in infrastructure, particularly telecommunications. Seventh: A significant improvement is expected in the supply of water and energy Britain and Italy (and countries

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Prof. Dr Roman Herzog