The European Union donated €115 million for the post-earthquake reconstruction process after Albania was struck by a 6.4 magnitude quake in the early hours of 26 November 2019.
The EU Ambassador to Albania, Luigi Soreca, said in an interview for Euronews Albania that they are continuously monitoring how the money is being spent.
ambassador Soreca recalled that the EU has contracted two UN Agencies, namely UNDP and UNOPS, to overview the implementation of the two programs for which the EU allocated the funds.
“We trusted them to implement these programs, but we control and monitor the implementation through a steering committee, but also regular visits together with UN colleagues. Myself, I have been traveling all around the area to see how this money is being spent and something for which I am very proud is that every single decision in regards to these €115 million is available online”, said the head of the EU delegation to Tirana.
Ambassador Soreca also revealed why the EU chose to invest in two important areas with its two respective programs “EU4Schools” and “EU4Culture”, allocating €75 million to the former, and €40 million on the latter.
“Why these elements? Because the European Union wanted to build the future of Albania, a bridge between the past and the future, but also between the EU and Albania, and education and culture are a projection toward the future”, said Ambassador Soreca.
According to him, despite significant improvements, there’s still a lot to be done.
“I hope that Albanians see this as a major achievement of the European Union, and of the Delegation of the European Union, and mine because I see this as an achievement. But the most important thing to be understood is that the European Union is here every day, to help Albania in every crisis that Albanians go through”, concluded EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca.
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