Vetting | Armand Kullau

From the design tender to the tender for the construction of the New Port in Porto Romano, several changes would occur in the Public Procurement Law in 2024, which would directly determine the process for tenders and the construction of this port.

In June 2024, the Albanian government would authorize the Durrës Port Authority to directly negotiate and conclude consultancy agreements with the international Dutch company "Royal Haskoning DHV", within its field of competence, an area of ​​strategic interest for the processes of competition, contracting, construction and supervision of the new integrated port of Durrës in Porto-Romano.

So, the company that drafted the technical project would be assigned other processes, deciding on everything else and raising suspicions of conflicts of interest since the company that drafted the project would be part of the Bid Evaluation Committee for announcing the winners for the construction of the port.

What raises questions about this project is the fact that for this port to have large capacities, it must be connected to the railway, which it does not have. Beyond these problems, the Albanian government will have to make additional investments for this port to establish railway infrastructure.

This would be a grandiose project that would bring about an indirect clash between the European Union and the Albanian government. The European Commission’s latest 2025 report highlights the transitional provisions in the new Public Procurement Law, which authorizes central government public institutions to negotiate and conclude international consultancy agreements in areas of strategic interest. According to the European Union, this change in the Public Procurement Law closes off competition as it continues to raise concerns about its compatibility with the European Union model and the Stabilization and Association Agreement.

According to the report, in essence the tender documents create a common picture, Porto Romano has been treated as a strategic project at a political and geopolitical level, but this strategy has not been reflected from the beginning in the technical design and procurement procedures.

According to former Deputy Chief of Naval Forces Artur Meçollari, this project has brought disagreements between the European Union and the government.

"The European Union has contested the issue of the port of Durres, for the way it was tendered because it contradicts Article 73 of the Association-Stabilization Agreement. As such, these have led to the failure of the Porto Romano project so far and I am convinced that the Porto Romano project will never be realized, because it is not feasible and is not a project that will withstand time", said former Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Meçollari.

He further adds that NATO has been studying Pashë Alimani for five years and Porto Romano has been rejected by them.

"NATO considers the current port of Durres as its gateway, not Porto Romano, despite what Prime Minister Edi Rama said that he would grant it as a concession. Even the European Union still sees the port of Durres as its gateway, not Porto Romano," said Meçollari.

The European Commission report emphasizes that despite official plans, no concrete steps have been taken to shift commercial activity from existing ports to Porto Romano, while the government has decided to finance the project through the state budget and not a public-private partnership.

Urban planner Artan Kaçani also has the same position as Meçollari regarding NATO's presence in the new port in Porto Romano.

"At the moment, NATO has not agreed to position itself in this type of port, due to the very fact of the seismic problems that exist there, but also due to the problems we mentioned a little earlier, the fuel field, which would make military defense very difficult in such conditions," urban planner Kaçani told "Vetting".

He continues that key infrastructure is missing, which is railway infrastructure and which should have been an asset provided by the Albanian state.

The Albanian government's planning approach raises questions about the project, when the area itself for the construction of the new Port has problems with high seismic activity.

"They tried a few years ago to build the concrete and road platform, they stuck 20-meter columns and the pilot columns were swallowed by the ground. The columns have disappeared. Here we understand that the merging of tectonic plates is not a joke. It is something very serious, which tomorrow will put all investments at risk," said urban planner Kaçani.

According to urban planner Kaçani, the construction firms that have undertaken the construction of the port of Durres are already eroding the northern part of the Durres hill, to find an increasingly stable foundation on which to place the quay and the port entrance.