Erion Veliaj is the Mayor of Tirana. He was born in Tirana, on December 17, 1979. After completing high school at the “Sami Frashëri” Gymnasium, he pursued higher education in the USA, where he graduated in “Political Science” at Grand Valley State University, Michigan. He then completed his Master’s degree in the United Kingdom at the University of Sussex, with a focus on European Integration. Before returning to Albania in 2003, Erion Veliaj worked in North and South America, East Africa and Kosovo.

In 2003, Veliaj founded the MJAFT movement, an organization that unified the activist and protest spirit of Albanian youth, which in 2004 received the United Nations Civil Society Award. The MJAFT movement, in addition to its creativity and energy, also became known for its innovative management style, where group work prevailed. Instead of centralizing activities under the direction of a leader, the movement was characterized by delegating work to all team members – an element that continues to be essential in Veliaj’s management style.

Erion Veliaj led the MJAFT movement until November 2007. In the 2009 parliamentary elections, he was a candidate for the Albanian Parliament through the G99 civil list.

In the period 2007–2009, Veliaj joined the European Stability Initiative, a key organization in promoting the EU’s enlargement towards the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In 2011, Veliaj joined the leadership of the Socialist Party of Albania as Secretary for Youth and Emigration, where he distinguished himself for organizing for the first time the structures of the Socialist Party in the countries where Albanians work and live, especially in Greece and Italy.

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, Veliaj was the Socialist Party candidate in the Gjirokastra district, from where he was elected a deputy of the Albanian Parliament. In September 2013, Veliaj was appointed Minister of Social Welfare and Youth. At the head of this ministry, he distinguished himself for the very successful management of an institution, whose budget constitutes about 30% of the state budget. In just 1 and a half years, under Veliaj’s leadership, the MSWY stood out in the government cabinet and in the sphere of public opinion with the drafting and successful implementation of five main reforms, which were of great importance for the country, even for the fact that they had never been taken into consideration in 24 years of democracy:

1)  Pension reform –  One of the most courageous, but also most necessary reforms for citizens was the pension reform, which, by increasing benefits for all salaries, restored citizens’ trust in the scheme, increasing the number of contributors by 93,392 people in just 1 year.

2)  Labor market –  With the opening of new, modern labor offices and the changing image of employment services, the labor market reform yielded its first results, increasing the number of employees.

3) Social payments –  Another significant challenge was the situation with social payments for the needy, who did not receive their payments in the last months of the year. Cleaning up the schemes from abuse, digitalization and good financial management made it possible for them to receive all payments on time in 2014.

4) Vocational education –  A profound reform also saw the vocational education system, which was oriented towards the German dual system, giving more importance to the practice of theoretical skills and bringing students’ skills closer to the demands of the labor market.

5) Politically persecuted –  Veliaj’s performance at the head of the MSWY will also be remembered for the courage shown in launching the process for opening the files of the former state security as well as in reforming the compensation system for the politically persecuted, providing 4 installments in just 1 year, while in 8 years they had only been compensated in 1 installment.