The draft law on the reform of diplomacy was postponed from the agenda of today's plenary session. At the request of the Socialist Party, it was withdrawn due to the absence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elisa Spiropali. An act considered one of the most important for the organization and functioning of the foreign service remains unexamined, awaiting a new date.
The postponement comes a day after Spiropali was in Vienna, where she was invited to the State Opera Ball, the biggest social event of the year in Austria. According to the Austrian media outlet Politik Live, Austria's Foreign Minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger (Neos), is the only politician in the government who had her own box for this evening, where she was to receive state guests from the Philippines and Albania. From the Albanian side, the guest was Elisa Spiropali.
According to the rules of the organization, the free boxes belong only to the Federal President and the Chancellor. All other boxes are financed by the participants themselves. The prices this year were record highs: a balcony box costs 26 thousand euros, while an entrance ticket costs 410 euros. President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife Doris Schmidauer represented the state presidency, while Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) was absent due to a commitment in Brussels, but was officially replaced at the ceremony.
At the same time, the vote on the Foreign Service law, one of the acts that directly affects the organization, career and functioning of Albanian diplomacy, was expected in Tirana. In practice, this means that the Foreign Minister was at a gala evening with classical music on the very day when Parliament was supposed to discuss the reform related to the institution she heads.
So, while in Vienna Strauss waltzes echoed from a 26 thousand euro box, in Tirana the reform in diplomacy remained on hold. The law that will reform the foreign service was not voted on. And for the moment, Albanian diplomacy has more of a postponement than an approved reform.
