In a statement to the media, the Democratic Party MP stated that he has submitted new evidence to SPAK regarding the DP’s complaint about the College of Europe project in Tirana.
He said that 17 million euros and state land had been earmarked for years for the expansion of the University of Tirana campus, but in 2024 the funds and property were directed towards the construction of the College of Europe campus.
The MP accused the government of diverting the funds from their original purpose, claiming that the decision violated the interests of around 22,000 students at the University of Tirana. According to the MP, the DP’s complaint seeks verification of the responsibility of Prime Minister Edi Rama, former Minister of Education Gerta Manastirliu and Mayor Erion Veliaj, as well as other persons involved in the procedures.
He raised suspicions of abuse of office, corruption against foreign civil servants, and violations of urban planning procedures, emphasizing that documents on the transfer of funds have not been made public.
The MP requested that SPAK launch investigations to verify the legality of the project and the use of 17 million euros.
Press statement:
Then, in November, especially after the scandal that broke out in Brussels with Federica Mogherini, who was investigated and charged, we filed a complaint on behalf of the Democratic Party about the College of Europe, about the College of Europe campus that has opened in Tirana and is currently under construction.
This complaint starts precisely from the fact that the land where this campus will be built is state land that was allocated in 2013 by former Prime Minister Sali Berisha for the expansion of the University of Tirana campus. At the same time, the 17 million euro fund was also a fund that was dedicated to the expansion of this campus. Also, continuously in 2015, in 2019, the Municipality of Tirana with the Mayor Erion Veliaj, and then with the Prime Minister of Tirana [Albania], presented projects for the expansion of the Tirana campus precisely on this land and precisely with these 17 million euro funds. Also in 2021, after a 5 million euro project that has passed and was applied for the expansion of the University of Tirana, the final project was presented that should have been completed in 2026. Meanwhile, in 2024, at the drop of a pen, everything is redirected towards the College of Europe campus.
Apart from the great harm done to the 22 thousand students of the University of Tirana, who are today exposed to exorbitant rents and living costs, because that very campus expansion would be for the dormitories of the University of Tirana, we are dealing with the benefit of only 32 students of the College of Europe with this fund of 17 million euros. We have not found public documents that explain how these funds were directed for this project.
So, there is a very strong suspicion of budgetary procedural violations, at the same time that it falls under abuse of office, and we want a clarification that SPAK should investigate. And that is why we have filed this report to see the legal validity of this matter. There are also urban planning problems, which well-known urban planners have publicly denounced, for non-implementation of the PDV, for lack of environmental impact assessment, for lack of public consultations with the community, and all the legal procedures which again we think have not been implemented. Today I was called in the capacity of a whistleblower to bring new evidence, I have signed that I stand by the report and now I hope that SPAK will do its duty and bring justice to the country for hSpecifically, it is Prime Minister Edi Rama, the former Minister of Education at the time Gerta Manastirliu, the Mayor Erion Veliaj, who is definitely a person in the know and is a person who signed, and then all the other people who may have hidden the truth or even deviated the procedures.
According to them, the documents exist. So, as in Albania, 17 documents are made within a day, fap after fap, these documents exist but are not public at all. And now we will see what he will do to continue our denunciation or report, to start it as an issue or to dismiss it.
It is for abuse of office, for corruption against foreign civil servants, and for failure to implement urban planning procedures. The case that was denied to 22 thousand students of the University of Tirana