Erion Veliaj

Mayor Veliaj was born in 1979 in Tirana. He has BA degree in Political Science from  the Grand Valley State University of Michigan, USA, and a MSc in European Studies  from the University of Sussex, UK. He entered politics after a long engagement with  civil society, international organizations and media. In 2003, Mr. Veliaj founded the  movement “MJAFT” (Enough), an organization that unified the activist and protest  spirit of the Albanian youth, which in 2004 received the United Nations Award for  civil society. He led the “MJAFT” organization until November 2007. He joined the  European Stability Initiative, a key organism in the promotion of EU enlargement. In  2013 he was elected as a Member of the Albanian Parliament in Gjirokastra. In the  same year, he was appointed as the Albanian Minister of Social Welfare and Youth.  He has a very good knowledge of English and Italian language, and is fluent in German  and French. Veliaj has been the Mayor of Tiran since 2015.