FLASH
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Tonight's guest on the "Të Pashoq" podcast is former Navy captain Artur Meçellari, who has spoken on many issues. He sheds light on the government's agreement with the Italians for Pashalimani.
According to him, Prime Minister Edi Rama violates an agreement reached in 2014 with the Dutch company Damen Shipyard and replaces cooperation with the Italian state-owned company Fincantieri, causing serious operational damage to the Albanian Navy.
Meçellari was present on April 5, 2019, in Prime Minister Rama's office, along with the owner of the Damen Shipyard company, when Rama promised to formalize the agreement for the maintenance of ships and the rehabilitation of the Pashaliman shipyard. This promise was not kept.
According to Meçellari, this was the third time the prime minister had waited for the deal to be completed. The technical reason for choosing Damen is clear: 84 percent of the Albanian navy’s investment is Dutch technology. Certified maintenance could only be done by the manufacturer. Meçellari illustrates the absurdity of the alternative choice with a direct analogy: “ It’s like a Benz being maintained by Fiat .”
The story of the cooperation with Damen began with a grant from the Dutch government of 14.5 million euros, out of the 32.4 million euros that the construction of all Albanian ships cost. The grant was given with an implicit condition: the continuation of the cooperation with Damen Shipyard. This condition was not respected.
In 2021, the first phase of the new collaboration began, but relations with Damen were suspended again. Fincantieri, a largely state-owned Italian company, took over the contract.
Meçellari describes this decision as political, not technical, and links it to Prime Minister Rama's interests in his relations with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The operational consequences are concrete and measurable. Of the 180 workers that the Pashaliman shipyard had, today 35 remain. Of the 80 qualified and internationally certified technicians, only one remains. At least one of the Albanian Navy ships has been leaving the port of Durres for six years only for photographic purposes, without real operational capacity. The ships have gone up to 12 years without regular maintenance.
" Resuming work would be extremely difficult ," says Meçellari, questioning whether Fincantieri will be able to reactivate the shipyard in its current state. Follow the podcast at 9:00 p.m.
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