Statement of Defence Minister Mimi Kodheli

: Published: Wednesday, 07 May 2014 19:08

Thanking President Nishani for the attention ragarding the developments in Defence, but also noticing a misinterpretation by the President regarding several bills drafted by the Ministry of Defence with the full technical support of our international partners, the Minister of Defence Mimi Kodheli feels obliged to publicly clarify that, the comments made by President Nishani in his press release, regarding the bills in question, are absolutely inappropriate.

Firstly, the Minister of Defence has consulted every relevant actor and factor in relation to the matters dealt in its bills, including the President of the Republic, with whom Minister Kodheli has directly exchanged necessary opinions at the highest political level in the National Security Council, but also at the expert level in roundtables, regarding these matters.

Secondly, the Minister of Defence guarantees on this occasion President Nishani and the public that, all the three bills cited by him, as bills with legal deficiencies that impinge on the balance of constitutional powers, are in fact a coherent legal expression of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania and of the organizational standards of a NATO country. In all of the parliamentary republics of the North Atlantic Alliance, the President has those responsibilities granted by the Constitution and not other responsibilities remaining as atavisms of the communist regime.

Thirdly, the Minister of Defence guarantees that has always been and remains willing to hear directly from the President of the Republic any misinterpretation, then “hearing” it after it was heard by the ambassadors of NATO member countries.