In his “Weekly Reflections” feature of the “FLASIM” (Let’s Talk) podcast, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that around 720 State Police officers, those serving on the front lines of dealing with the highest risk, will benefit from further salary increases.

Rama stated that the RENEA forces, the National Security Forces and the Special Operational Forces will be supported even more for the challenging and valuable work they do in the service of communities and the homeland.

“A RENEA inspector-general of police will now be paid around 1,600 euros, while chief of police in this structure will reach a salary of around 2,300 euros. For the operational forces, the salary of an inspector will be around 1,200 euros, while for a chief constable between 1,600 and 1,700 euros,” Rama said. /gj.m/j.p/p.s./

During a press conference, when asked about the debate between Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Judges Association on judges’ salaries, Berisha said that building the salary pyramid is an exclusive competence of the government and a process with high state responsibility.

According to Berisha, today the salary ratio in the justice system is distorted. Berisha stated that the judges’ demands are fair and based on the Constitution.

“I have made the issue crystal clear; the salaries and the salary pyramid are an absolute exclusive right for the entire state and its executive institutions, except for public enterprises, which operate with a different mechanism. Building the salary pyramid is a very responsible and extremely important task. The salary pyramid, reflects the advantages that the nation has on the path of development.”

“Every judge today has the right not to accept the existing pyramid. The issue here is not the levels. The reason is that a certain prosecutor in the special prosecution office is paid a salary twice as high as the constitutional court judge. The state is obliged to adhere to the hierarchy. And this hierarchy determines the highest salary in the Republic of Albania, that of the President of the Republic.

“The pyramid has been overturned and it has been overturned solely to pay a group of mercenaries for political purposes,” said Berisha.

He said that PM Rama himself voted for the legal changes that, according to him, have overturned the salary pyramid.

“He has overturned the pyramid. He is the main responsible person. The salary pyramid is not an issue to play with,” said Berisha.

Berisha said that the government has overturned the state hierarchy for political interests. /m.q/a.f/r.e/p.s./

Rama stated that for the 6,800 company workers there will be a salary indexation of 6.1%. For all electricians of the company, there will be a wage increase of 7,500 thousand lekë per month and for the electrical engineers of the company there will be a salary increase of 12,500 lekë per month.

“The company has also made special work to improve the quality of human resources and in fact we are witnesses that OSHEE has successfully carried out several public calls to recruit new technicians, young people who come from vocational education school. The company has done a commendable job to increase its engineering capacities”, said Rama.

“I believe that all of these are significant and undoubtedly fully deserved increases for a large team that sustainably improves performance and sustainably increases the quality of service to citizens”, said the prime minister.

PM Rama made these statements at the presentation of the “OSHEE Charge” project, a new electric vehicle charging service, to move towards clean energy and sustainable transportation. /gj.m/r.e/a.f/p.s./

During presentation today in the Assembly of the annual activity of the Department of Public Administration, for the year 2024, Pirdeni stated that, “The European Commission’s evaluation is the most important point of reference for every institution that bears responsibility in the ongoing reform process, including the Department of Public Administration”.

Pirdeni also highlighted the OECD/SIGMA assessment that in the report published in December 2024, positioned Albania as the country with the highest performance in the region in most of the 32 measured indicators, especially in policy design and coordination, in human resources management and civil service, in digital governance and in public finance management.

Also, Pirdeni emphasized, “SIGMA positively assesses that, “The civil service recruitment and management system in Albania is considered mature and sustainable”.

The minister emphasized that within the framework of this reform, there has been implemented salary increases for several career systems with high public weight throughout 2024.

Pirdeni underlined that, “With the draft budget for 2026, the government aims to provide for the indexation of public administration salaries as required by the law on salary competence and also provides for an increase in the minimum salary by 10 thousand lekë from 40 thousand lekë to 50 thousand lekë, which renders into a 25% increase for a significant category of administration employees with currently lower salaries”.

“For public administration specialists, the increase will be 5 thousand lekë,” Pirdeni said.

Pirdeni also spoke of salary increase for other sectors like doctors, teaches, police. /gj.m/a.f/p.s./

The decision, proposed by the Ministry of Defense and included in the budget for 2025, aims to evaluate and motivate the forces that have contributed to the management of natural emergencies, through a structured reward scheme depending on the duration of their engagement.

According to the decision, the reward will be given to employees of the following institutions:

Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania; National Civil Protection Agency; State Police; General Directorate of Fire Protection and Rescue; Fire Protection and Rescue Services at the municipal level.

The amount of the reward will be determined according to the days of engagement of the personnel in firefighting operations: 1 to 7 days of engagement – reward in the amount of 1 gross monthly salary; 8 to 15 days of engagement – ​​remuneration in the amount of 2 gross monthly salaries; 16 days or more – remuneration in the amount of 3 gross monthly salaries.

The decision has been published in the “Official Gazette” and has entered into force immediately. /j.p/p.s./

Through a reaction in the social media, Rama stated that, “For the second time in three years, the Union of Judges is again demanding a salary increase in the court”.

“A unique, unheard and unknown practice in the history of states – for judges to set their own salaries through the court – but which occurred in Albania, in 2022, when this Union requested in the Constitutional Court that the basic salary of judges be equivalent either to the basic salary of the Director of the Council of Minister’s Department or to a percentage of the president’s salary, according to the wishes of the judges”, he added.

And the Constitutional Court accepted the request, guaranteeing a fixed basic salary of 156,000 lekë!

While in 2022 the Union wanted to guarantee a basic amount regardless of any calculation, today it demands that, as a result of the increase in the administration’s salary, the salaries of judges be increased as well – and not a little, but 700 euros!

In this case, Rama said that, “This would be a major, multidimensional abuse, which would violate many people and many things, starting from the Constitution itself and the seriousness of the Republic of Albania”.

The prime minister added that, “We accepted the first bitter joke of the Constitutional Court for the sake of silent respect for a judicial decision – but, it should not be repeated. Because silence to any abuse, with our support for justice, is no longer an option for us. Moreover, in this case this would be a major, multidimensional abuse, which would affect many people and many things, starting from the Constitution itself and the seriousness of the Republic of Albania”. /p.s./

Rama said that, “The average salary in the public sector was 372 euros. Today, in the latest independent evaluation made by the Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, and confirmed by international financial organizations, the average salary for 2024 in the public sector was 1 thousand euros; while in Albania 2030, it will be at least 1200 euros”.

Thus, said Rama, we increased the average salary more than 2 and a half times and will increase it by at least 30% more.

Regarding the minimum wage, the prime minister said that, “In 2013, when we took office, the minimum wage was 157 euros. Today, 2024 closed with the minimum wage of 400 euros”.

He stated that, “Starting from January 2026, by decision that will be taken after the elections, when the June normative act will also be made ready, the minimum wage will be 500 euros”.

“The entrepreneurs will be forced to increase the minimum wage, but the government will create facilities for them. Thus, during the 18 months after the first salary, the state will not require them to pay any tax on the additional 100 euros”, said Rama. /p.s./

Addressing an event in the Municipality of Kamze on the Teachers’ Day on Friday, the opposition leader claimed that Socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama had failed to support Albania’s education system and pledged significant salary increase for teachers above the average.

“Teachers should receive a higher wage than the average. If the average wage will edge up to EUR 1200, teachers will definitely receive higher salary,” he promised.

In his remarks, Berisha said that Rama’s government had failed to pay attention to education system and that 760 schools had been closed over the past years.

“The number of students has dropped by more than 60 000. Teachers were replaced by party militants. The teachers’ salaries, instead of pursuing the upward trend, now fail to compensate even half of the inflation rate in the last 12 years,” Berisha said, underlining also the demographic changes and the low birth rate.

According to him, the town of Kolonje in southeast Albania recorded only one birth in 2023.

/u.sh/

In his speech, Chairman of the Democratic Party Sali Berisha said that, “There have been a large number of requests, candidacies and this is evidence of the high level of trust that Albanians have in the DP”.

“Today, in this meeting, we approve the candidacies of hundreds of activists, leaders, democrats, our supporters, who have expressed their willingness to participate in the primaries process, a process that is fundamental for being candidates for MPs in the Assembly of Albania from the DP. All those who participated in this process show the trust they expressed in the DP”, said Berisha.

Berisha also took the opportunity to speak on the program of the Democratic Party.

According to Berisha, the program, “Not only provides answers to the serious problems accumulated over these 12 years, but it provides the most excellent answer, provides the best answer and solution in the interest of every citizen to the major problems that the individual and Albanian society face today”.

“This program contains: Setting a living wage for every Albanian citizen; a minimum wage of 500 euros, 25% higher than what it is today; property taxes will be reduced 5 times; the price of energy for businesses will be reduced three times; the price of oil will be reduced by 40%; income tax will be reduced to 10%”, said Berisha.

Berisha added that Albania as a tourist destination is certainly an objective that will be consolidated.

Focusing on healthcare, Berisha said that, “We do not promise the free of charge healthcare because the promise of free healthcare brought this dramatic state of this system today. But we absolutely promise quality healthcare. We promise a doubling of the healthcare budget, not for citizens, but for the state budget.”

Berisha also said that, “Every pension below 200 euros will become 200 euros. And I tell you that village pensions are on average 120 euros.”

He further said that, “We will do everything to strongly promote Albania’s demographic growth.”

“We also shall do the utmost for the return of emigrants,” Berisha added. /r.e/a.f/p.s./

He emphasized that in the last four years, the total increase has reached over 70%, describing this as an investment in security and appreciation for the sacrifice of the Albanian Armed Forces.

°Albanian Armed Forces, better paid and better trained! From January 1, 2025, the salary of military personnel increases by 23% compared to last year! In the last 4 years, the total increase has reached over 70%! Investment in security, appreciation for the sacrifice!”, wrote Vengu in the social media. /a.f/p.s./