7/27/2019 1208180730Shekulli.pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/1208180730shekullipdf 1/3

7/27/2019 1208180730Shekulli.pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/1208180730shekullipdf 2/3

Newspaper Shekulli, 5th of April 2008.

The iron woman who left Albania in 2000 leaving behind her accusations forcorruption of ministers will lead a new mission from Rome.

What she left behind when going away from Albania on 30 th of January 2000 was a fileof smuggling of great proportions which was said to mention names of ministers asheads of mafia organizations importing high value commodities like coffee, cigaretteswithout paying customs duties. Dr. Natalina Cea was considered as a heroine at the timein Italy. She was the head of a European Assistance Mission combating the smugglingand in one case was present herself in Durres customs house to intercept two luxurycars being smuggled in containers loaded with vegetables as covert.

Yesterday a new technical assistance project to taxes and customs in five Europeancountries, Albania included, was introduced at Rogner Hotel for which Natalina Cea willbe in charge. TACTA is an aid project worth of a value of 7.1 million Euros managedonce again by Ms. Cea. According to the statement of Natalina Cea in the officialwebsite eu-tacta.org, the project will work to increase the functional capacities ofcustoms organizations in five countries and repress smuggling and organized crime.This time the project will be managed by Ms. Cea from Rome.

Difficult missions

Customs assistance to Albania started on 1994 at the time of embargo to Yugoslavia.The Assistance Mission SAM Albania ended in 1996 when the UN lifted the embargoand there were many controversies with respect to the illegal exports from Albania toYugoslavia. The new CAM-A mission was an Italian initiative. Under the guidance ofMs. Natalina Cea, the mission organized the Albanian customs system after thedestruction in 1997, composed the new Customs Code which became effective in 1998and ended with a conflict between Ms. Cea and Albanian politics. Ms. Cea declared thatduring her work she received serious intimidations. “The officials made it clear to methat they knew everything about my life” was stated by her in the media in 2000.

On January of 2000 she resigned declaring that was not able to work under such anatmosphere where the politics could not be distinguished from the cigarettes smugglers.This was followed by a diplomatic crisis between Tirana and Italy. Unofficially it wasdeclared that it was not just a matter of smuggling but the role of Italy as strategicinvestor in our country. The Italian Senate held a special session. Ms. Cea declared thatsmuggling in Albania was managed by ministers. She also declared of havingpossession of completed files on this issue but it remained just on the level of politicaldeclaration. The Italian senators reacted with irritated statements. One of them declared:“we must be real hard to official Tirana”. Cea declared to have delivered to Brussels thefile on smuggling. In fact nothing happened.

Intimidations remained simply intimidations. The Italian media had lots of news on“Albanian mafia”. That same year, the magazine “Panorama” mentioned all Albanianpoliticians of past time as heads of mafia. The magazine "Limes Geopolitica", includedAlbanian in the list of “mafia states”.

There was needed three and a half year as well as Berlusconi coming in power to mark

7/27/2019 1208180730Shekulli.pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/1208180730shekullipdf 3/3

the improvement of diplomatic relations with Albania. Ms. Cea was considered a heroinein Italy and by the Albanians as well. The majority viewed the work of Ms. Cea as achance thrown away in the fight against crime.

The situation got calmer with the passing of time. The mission which used to be on dailybasis in the Albanian newspapers continued to work in tranquility and did not make any

news. The managers of mission rarely appeared in public and they spoke very badEnglish.

Ms. Cea comes in Tirana when the relations between Italy and Albania seem to be veryfriendly. There is a growing interest of Italy for Albania especially in the energy sector.TACTA’ s task is to reform the customs and tax system, to improve the businessthrough the implementation of Code of Conduct in Tax business and to align the directand indirect tax system with the standards of European Union. In brief, this will be amission to create legislative support for the investors. May be this mission of Ms. Ceawill be less spectacular than the previous one.

Author: Gjergj Erebara