DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

"You are far from Albania" - Albanian journalist calls out the North Macedonian minister's bluff

2026-05-23 16:04:42Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"You are far from Albania" - Albanian journalist calls out the North

Two days ago, news spread by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Timcho Mucunski, caused a stir in North Macedonia.

The latter had shared a post on social media claiming that North Macedonia had received more funds from the European Commission than Albania. This news was immediately denied in North Macedonia.

Journalist Sefer Selimi, in a post on social media, explains that the Ministry has only made public the last month's installment of the allocated funds, but in total Albania has managed to convince the EC to receive tens of millions of euros more than its neighbors.

"This post does not show reform performance. It only shows an isolated installment and presents it as a regional competition, where of course, the joy is that 'we are ahead of Albania'."

The truth according to the European Commission is this: in the last payment, North Macedonia received 65.7 million euros, Albania 49 million euros, while Montenegro 44.2 million euros. But the Commission itself clarifies that this was the third six-month payment, based on payment requests and the assessment of specific reform steps for that period: for Albania in business competitiveness and innovation, while for North Macedonia in education and digitalization. So it is not a ranking of “who is first in the region”. 

If you look at the full picture, the narrative immediately falls apart. The European Commission states that, with this payment, the total amount released so far reaches 212.8 million euros for Albania, 142.1 million euros for North Macedonia and 89.3 million euros for Montenegro. So Albania is not behind North Macedonia; Albania is significantly ahead in the total amount released from the Instrument. 

Even more clearly: in the previous payment, Albania received 99.3 million euros, while North Macedonia only 15.9 million euros. At that time, the European Commission reported that the total disbursed was 99.3 million euros for Albania and only 23.8 million euros for North Macedonia. 

The reason is simple: the money is not given for propaganda, but for fulfilled conditions. The European Commission clearly states that payments are made twice a year, based on the requests of the partner countries and only after verification of the fulfillment of the relevant reform conditions. If the conditions are not met, the amount is suspended or reduced. 

Therefore, the claim “first in the region” is a manipulation of a cropped picture. In this tranche, North Macedonia received more because it had more room left to receive after its poorer performance in the previous payment. Albania, on the contrary, had received much more earlier, because it had fulfilled more conditions and performed better in the first phase.

"In this round, RMV failed to benefit from another 70 million euros due to the failure to implement reforms. So it has lost more than it has gained," writes Selimi.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×