Rama Addresses Fuel Prices, Investment Surge, and Public Space Reform in Flasim Season Six, Episode Twelve

Prime Minister Edi Rama used the twelfth episode of the sixth season of his weekly podcast, Flasim, to address a range of policy and governance matters: the Transparency Board’s ongoing oversight of fuel prices in the context of the war’s impact on global energy markets, Albania’s economic growth figures for the fourth quarter of 2025, the second edition of Matchmaker Albania and its record international investor turnout, and the continuing campaign to reclaim public spaces from unlicensed encroachment. The episode closed with the announcement of a nationwide community engagement cycle ahead of next year’s local elections, and a preview of a new government financing instrument targeting small and medium enterprises. Below is a full transcript of the PM’s weekly address.

The Transparency Board has been set in motion to reflect the impact of the war against the criminal regime of Tehran on fuel prices in the market, thereby preventing abuses of that impact at the expense of consumers.

According to data from the Mediterranean exchange, in recent days there has been a drop in the prices of major petroleum products, and in line with this development, the Transparency Board immediately reflected that price reduction domestically, doing what it is obligated to do: setting price ceilings and preventing the exploitation of the situation at the expense of consumers.

What is important to understand is that this mechanism links prices in Albania directly to movements in international markets, not to unilateral decisions by domestic operators. This means that depending on how prices move on the exchange, the board remains consistently on the side of consumers, drivers, and citizens, maintaining clear boundaries between price increases that are objectively justified by movements in the international market from which Albania imports its fuel, and on the other hand the kind of profiteering that, whenever it finds an opening, invariably runs unchecked.

Let me emphasize this once more: the board does not set fuel prices arbitrarily. It does not reduce fuel prices in ways that would jeopardize supply capacity. It simply and solely monitors price movements and does not allow operators to play games at the expense of consumers. Its role is to ensure transparency and to remain permanently vigilant against violations of its decisions, which are followed by immediate measures up to and including the suspension of operations for operators who do not comply. So far everything appears to be functioning as it should, but we will do our utmost to ensure that until the end of this situation, which is entirely beyond our control, everything remains transparent and nothing excessive harms consumers.

This week saw the second edition of Matchmaker Albania, an event that brings together around 1,200 participants, including nearly 500 international investors from more than 40 countries, creating a real opportunity in a concrete space where ideas, projects, and ambitions for building synergies around investment in Albania take shape through hundreds of direct meetings between representatives of various enterprises.

What I felt clearly even in this second edition was the growth in interest, the expansion of genuinely actionable opportunities grounded in mutual interest that then translates into commitment, and the presence of well-known international companies that are not in Albania merely for a symbolic or incidental appearance, but because Albania is being taken increasingly seriously as an investment destination.

This connects directly to what I emphasized in my remarks at the opening of this second edition of Matchmaker Albania: Albania is no longer in the phase where it presents itself as a country with potential for the future. It has entered a new phase in which the future is now. And what can be said with full confidence is that the model we inherited when we came to government, an economy built on cheap labor, has given way to a model that creates added value, that generates quality and durable long-term partnerships. The old model, the model of a country receiving two or three million tourists a year, among whom we even counted Albanians themselves each time they crossed the border, and averaging 300 to 400 million euros in foreign direct investment annually, has been replaced by something fundamentally different: a country that now welcomes 12 million tourists a year and has surpassed 1.5 billion euros in foreign direct investment annually, ranking clearly as the country with the deepest and most far-reaching transformation in this region over the past decade.

Directly connected to the previous note is the note on the economy, which continues to grow and sustains its positive trend. The economic growth figures published for the final quarter of 2025 present a clear picture of the country’s sustained economic trajectory and confirm that even in the fourth quarter growth reached approximately 4 percent. This is an indicator that confirms the continuity of a steady development pace throughout last year and the years preceding it. What is important to stress is that the economy continues to diversify, and Albania is no longer an economic proposition limited to one or two sectors but one extending into virtually every direction.

The liberation of public spaces continues with determination, as does the imposition of a new status for public space. It is not easy. It is a battle against a deeply entrenched mentality, one apparently rooted even more deeply than these thirty-odd years might suggest, and one combined with the pre-transition mindset of a time when public spaces belonged to a unique state, a so-called dictatorship of the proletariat in which the proletarians nominally owned everything and collectively shared everything, yet in reality had absolutely nothing.

This process, as I have said from the very beginning after winning the fourth mandate, is not a temporary one. It is not an operation lasting a week, a month, or two months. It is a continuous, unrelenting, sustained commitment to restoring order in the use of shared spaces. In Tirana alone, where numerous cases of encroachment on public space have been identified, approximately 140,000 square meters have been reclaimed, which is no small figure. In areas such as the city center, very forceful interventions have been carried out to secure the liberation of public spaces.

At the same time, we are extending this effort to rural residential areas and to zones that, precisely because of their tourist interest, cannot be allowed to become dumping grounds for construction rubble or sites where pointless unlicensed structures are erected. In parallel, we are advancing with new models to replace the old ones, and we are finalizing a general regulation that will make clear to all those operating businesses tied to the use of public space exactly where their limits lie. The simple principle will be a 70-30 split: 70 percent of any given space will always belong to the public, will always belong to the community, will always belong to those who move through it on foot.

In closing these notes, I want to underline that we have now entered a new phase of more direct communication across the entire territory, engaging in a cycle of community meetings in every prefecture to speak about this important moment for the country, about the work begun in this fourth mandate, about the work that will begin shortly, and naturally to listen to people. This is also part of the organizational effort that we, as always, are beginning well in advance in preparation for what will be the Socialist Party’s exemplary victory in next year’s local elections. In these meetings we will speak about the work of Albania, about what we are building, about what we see as obstacles to overcome, about everything people want to share with us or hear from us, and we will naturally share with people those challenges that are entirely common, where the primary responsibility falls, and can only fall, on the government.