At the meeting of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Freedom Party MP Tedi Blushi defended the draft law proposed by the parliamentary group of this political force, emphasizing that the initiative aims to protect public health and the lives of Albanian consumers.

According to him, the draft law is not political in nature, but directly addresses the issues of food safety, also highlighted in the 2025 progress report for Albania. He described the situation as a "national emergency", arguing that over the last decade, the necessary measures have been lacking to curb the entry of expired or contaminated products into the market.

Blushi stated that the Albanian market is flooded with unsafe products, citing cases of salmonella-contaminated meat imported from Brazil, as well as contaminated flour from Serbia and Russia. According to him, products that would be destroyed in European Union countries end up on the Albanian market, endangering the health of citizens.

The MP emphasized that according to official reports, over 7 new cases of tumor diseases are registered each year, which, according to doctors, are also favored by the consumption of foods contaminated with pesticides and harmful substances.

He added that the draft law would also help honest Albanian farmers, as the lack of specialized laboratories has penalized exports of agricultural products, such as tangerines, peaches and strawberries, which have been returned from EU countries due to high levels of pesticides. Blushi also criticized the level of financing of the agricultural sector, emphasizing that about 50 million euros have been foreseen for this year, while also mentioning the problems with IPARD funds, which according to him have penalized farmers. In conclusion, he called on the members of the Commission to vote in favor of the draft law, describing it as an initiative in the protection of the public interest.

THE FULL WORD
Dear Mr. Chairman of the Commission!
Dear fellow MPs!
We present before you today a draft law, which was indeed proposed by the Parliamentary Group of the Freedom Party, but it is a draft law that does not simply and only deal with a political force or with several political entities, but is directly related to the public interest, because the purpose of this draft law itself is to protect public health and the lives of Albanian consumers.
This draft law, as my colleague Ismaili emphasized, is a draft law that actually aims to address all those issues regarding food safety, clearly identified in the progress report for Albania for 2025, and aims to put an end to an alarming situation, in our judgment but not only, such as food safety, which has become a national emergency due to the fact that during the last decade, those necessary measures have been lacking, which would curb not only the flooding of our markets, our supermarkets with expired and contaminated products, which then end up on the tables of Albanians, but also due to the fact that, as we are all aware, referring to media reports, the domestic market has been flooded and Albania has become a dumping ground for contaminated or expired products from all over the world.
We are all aware that Albania has been flooded with salmonella-tainted meat coming from Brazil or the frequent cases, if I'm not mistaken, a few days ago, of the import of contaminated flour from both Serbia and Russia.
The facts that many expired products that would be destroyed in many European Union countries, on the contrary, are brought to the Albanian market by importers.
A situation that is actually penalizing no one more than the Albanian consumer himself, and since here, at the beginning of this discussion, the question was raised as to why this Commission should consider this draft law, I believe that this is a draft law that is directly related to the protection of public health due to the fact that, as state institutions have reported, there are at least over 7 thousand cases of increasing tumor diseases year after year, which according to doctors, are favored precisely because of foods contaminated with pesticides and elements that are harmful to health.
I also want to highlight the fact that this draft law is a draft law that in itself also helps honest Albanian farmers, referring to the fact that many of the products that are exported today, albeit to a small extent, have been penalized and have tarnished the image of the country.
I refer to the case of tangerines, peaches, and strawberries, which are rejected or sent back by European Union countries precisely because of the high levels of pesticides they contain.
This is solely due to the lack of proper laboratories in which to conduct analyses of these products.
But this does not have to unfairly penalize the honest Albanian farmer, who, although currently penalized due to the underfunding that the Albanian government has given to this sector, let's not forget that for this year alone, the agricultural sector will be assisted by no more than 50 million euros, a figure that seems minor in relation to the criminal financial abuses committed by Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku in the Llogara tunnel affair alone.
And without forgetting the fact that Albanian farmers, for the third year in a row, are penalized due to the abuses that the Albanian government has committed with the help of IPARD funds, which have not ended up with the farmers, but have ended up with the incinerators and the clients and gangs connected to this majority.
Therefore, this is a draft law, which by guaranteeing the proper analysis of "Made in Albania" products, in addition to protecting public health and the lives of citizens, is a draft law that also supports honest products and the "Made in Albania" brand.
Therefore, I would invite all colleagues of this Committee to vote in favor of this draft law, because it is not simply a vote in favor of an initiative of a certain force, in this specific case the Freedom Party, but it is a vote in favor of public health and in favor of protecting the lives of the Albanian consumer.
Every vote against this draft law is, in fact, nothing more than a vote that goes against the public interest, against the protection of public health and against the protection of the lives of Albanian citizens, in the conditions when, I emphasize, food security today is a national alarm.
As Prime Minister Edi Rama himself was forced to admit after 13 years in power last January, when he was forced to admit that this government has failed to guarantee food security.
So we come with this concrete, efficient alternative, which has no political overtones, but an initiative that will provide a solution to a problem that needs to be solved and should have been solved, in fact, during these 12 years.