section_path: Prime Minister of Albania (2013–present)/Policies as Prime Minister
section_name: Policies as Prime Minister
paragraph_text: Policies as Prime Minister
  
  Since 11 September 2013, Rama is serving as the 33rd Prime Minister of Albania. During the electoral campaign, Rama stated that the return of public order was his number one priority. In 2013, the Albanian Police was able to cover actively only 55% of the territory. The Government invested heavily in modernizing, training, and improving financial benefits of the police force. The police earned international acclaim when in 2014 undertook a highly successful operation on Lazarat, a remote village in the south of the country, known for the production of narcotics.
  
  Rama has been committed to restructure the judicial system in Albania, which was one of the most corrupted and ineffective judicial systems in Europe at that time. In 2016, the Parliament approved the vetting law. Based on this law, any judge or prosecutor which cannot explain his source of wealth or former dubious verdicts will be disqualified for life. In November 2016, the European Union stated that a successful implementation of vetting law remains the sole criterion to fulfill before opening accession talks.
  
  Other key reform was in the energy sector, left on the brink of bankruptcy from a previous failed privatisation effort. His government successfully enforced the payment of billions of unpaid bills and heavily invested in the modernization of the obsolete power distribution network. The economic growth, from 0.5% in 2013, accelerated to 3.5% in 2016 and exceeded 4% during 2017. Unemployment was reduced steadily, thanks to 183,000 new jobs created in his first mandate, through a war against informality and opening of new businesses. Furthermore, with 11.5% in 2019, Albania had the 5th lowest unemployment rate in the Balkans.
  
  Other important reforms include the administrative reform, the social welfare and pension system reform, and the reform in higher education. Internationally, Rama is pursuing a historical reconciliation policy between Albanians and Serbs and his visit in Belgrade, in 2014 was the first visit of an Albanian Prime Minister in Serbia in over 70 years. In a second visit, during the Economic Forum of Nis, Rama compared the Albanian and Serbian reconciliation process with the historical reconciliation between the French and Germans after the Second World War. Rama is also a key supporter of the Berlin Process, an intergovernmental platform of cooperation between the European Union and Western Balkans countries.
  
  The Socialist Party led by Rama participated at the 2017 parliamentary elections on 25 June 2017. One day after, partial results suggested that the Socialist Party had won a majority. Which so happened.
  
  Rama and Ramush Haradinaj, then Prime Minister of Kosovo, had a clash in late 2019 due to different views on the Open Balkan initiative. Rama stated that Haradinaj "lies due to ignorance or on purpose". In 2020 Rama filed a lawsuit for defamation against Haradinaj.
  
  In 2023, the minimum wage was increased to 40,000ALL (€404) per month, an increase from that of 24,000ALL in 2017. Throughout 2024 and 2025, Rama’s government increased wages in the public administration, with the average gross salary in the public administration reaching €1040.
  
  In 2024, Rama announced plans to create a new European microstate called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order enclaved within Tirana. The new country is planned to serve as the headquarters of the Bektashi Order, a Sufi Islamic order led by Baba Mondi.