“Deal with CEZ, scandal of the century”

31/07/2014 00:00

“This could be considered the theft of the century made to the Albanian
people”, said the Democratic Party leader, Lulzim Basha, for the
agreement reached 5 weeks ago between the Albanian government and CEZ,
the Czech energy distribution company. Through this agreement, Albania
decides to withdraw from the trial at the international arbitrage and
pay 95.5 million EUR to CEZ, in exchange of taking back 76% of the
company’s shares. For this opposition this is not just a financial
mega-scandal, but also a criminal act of the Rama government, which he
accused of hiding the truth and of going against the interests of the
Albanian people.

“They lied and tried to say that it was certain that the arbitrage trial was to be lost, and that’s why they were forced to pay 95.5 million EUR”, Basha declared.

But what makes the opposition leader launch this harsh accusation, maybe the harshest in these years? By explaining the history of this conflict and the steps taken as advised by the international lawyer, Basha referred to September 30th, 2013, when the international lawyer expressed the concern of the new government for not acting with the arbitrage.

“The lawyer has never advised Albania to negotiate with CEZ. On the contrary, he said that the case could be easily won by the Albanian side”, Basha declared.

Basha mentioned a declaration of Prime Minister Rama, saying that this shows that the Albanian government had already decided to negotiate with CEZ. This declaration was made in December, in which Rama admits that the Albanian side was to be blamed for the conflict, even though he had been informed by the international experts that the case could be won.

“The reports that the opposition has received say with facts and figures that Albania owes CEZ 3 billion USD. It says that the revoked license of ERE was right and the lawsuits of CEZ were not justified. The five auditing companies advise the government to report the executive staff of CEZ which destroyed the company, and to investigate the money transfer abroad”, Basha declared.

Basha says that the government has hidden these reports from the citizens to manipulate the public opinion, because with this agreement they are giving away 500 million EUR of obligations. According to the opposition leader, the fact that the negotiations were kept secret is a criminal act. According to the opposition, this has happened because of another action that the government will take very soon.

“The second crime of this agreement is related to the preparation to increase the energy price, by making the Albanian citizens pay for this theft. It is clear and we will prove it to the Albanian people, that no Albanian lawyer or expert has advised the government to make a deal with CEZ, besides the private consultants of the Prime Minister, who used to work for CEZ”, Basha warned.

Basha appealed the majority MPs to demand for transparency and not vote the agreement, saying that the ratification of this agreement is a criminal act, since it has been done without transparency and against the national interest.

“The opposition will try with all legal, constitutional and political instruments to stop this theft, which is equal to one third of the GDP”, Basha declared.

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