On October 11, the salon was held on the subject: “Energy or Agriculture? Which of these two sectors should be given priority for subsidies?”
Informative and provocative opening was made by: Memli Krasniqi, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development who said that ‘comparative advantage’ should be considered as a determining criteria for our decision which sector to prioritize. However, such an approach seems not very rational, since subsidies are actually political decisions rather than economic ones. Besnik Bislimi, professor, AUK emphasized that the subsidy scheme is the part of electoral promises. Therefore, subsidies do not always have the ultimate goal of increasing efficiency. Jeton Zulfaj, a European policy expert, emphasized that currently in the European Union, agricultural subsidies take about 40% of the total budget. However, receiving subsidies is conditioned by the need for investment in renewable energy sources.
This salon was moderated by Visar Prebreza, journalist while the editorial was written by Learta Hollaj, Researcher, Indep.
Editorial of the sallon is written in the Albanian language and can be read here.