State of Culture in Albania 2025 · Municipal profiles · Artivista Center (Qendra Artivista)
This profile is based on information provided by the Municipality of Finiq in reply to Artivista's request for information on culture (2026) and INSTAT's 2023 Population and Housing Census. Amounts are in Albanian lek.
At a glance
| Region (qark) | Vlorë |
| Administrative units | 5: Finiq (centre in Dërmish), Aliko, Dhivër, Livadhja, Mesopotam |
| Area | 444.28 km² |
| Population, 2023 Census | 11,413 (about 26 residents per km²); 8.4% more than in 2011 |
| Residents aged 65 and over | 37.3% (national average 19.7%) |
| Culture budget | Planned 7,200,000 lek and spent 1,113,000 lek in 2025 |
| Share of the budget spent | From 52.0% in 2020 to 15.5% in 2025 |
| Heritage investment | 28,063,230 lek in three projects, two of them through the MILESTONES cross-border programme |
| Public consultations | 1 a year during the period 2020 - 2025 |
Summary
Finiq, a small municipality on the southern border with one of the oldest populations in Albania, has no cultural institution of its own. Five staff work on culture, the municipality organises about 10 activities a year, and the Cultural Centre in Livadhja, schools and village squares serve as its venues.
The culture budget grew strongly on paper: from 1,500,000 lek planned in 2020 to 8,050,000 lek in 2024, 7,200,000 lek in 2025 and 7,500,000 lek in 2026. Spending did not follow. The municipality spent 780,000 lek in 2020 and 1,113,000 lek in 2025, so the share of the budget used fell from 52.0% to 15.5%.
At the same time, Finiq has invested in heritage more than its annual budget suggests. During the period 2020 - 2023 it restored the House of Culture in Dhrovjan and the Cultural Centre in Livadhja and built a new museum in Livadhja, for a total of 28.1 million lek, two of these projects through the MILESTONES cross-border cooperation programme. The municipality also held one public consultation a year, but has no written plan for culture.
1. Governance and institutions
According to the municipality, Finiq has no cultural institution under its administration. Five staff were engaged in culture during the period 2020 - 2025; the reply does not say in which unit they work or how their number changed from year to year.
2. Funding
The planned culture budget was 1,500,000 lek in 2020, 1,200,000 lek in 2021, 2,200,000 lek in 2022 and 2,140,000 lek in 2023, then rose to 8,050,000 lek in 2024 and 7,200,000 lek in 2025, with 7,500,000 lek planned for 2026. Actual spending stayed between 501,000 and 1,200,000 lek a year. The share spent fell from 52.0% in 2020 and 54.2% in 2021 to 23.4% in 2023 and to 14.9% and 15.5% in 2024 and 2025. In the last two years, more than 6 million lek planned for culture was left unused each year. The reply does not explain the gap, and culture generates no income for the municipality.
3. Cultural programme
The municipality reports about 10 activities a year during the period 2020 - 2025, without naming them or giving a yearly count. With five staff and a budget that is largely unspent, the reply does not make it possible to see what kind of programme residents can expect.
4. Heritage
Finiq reports three heritage investments. The House of Culture in Dhrovjan was restored in 2020 - 2021 through MILESTONES II, at 11,076,072 lek. The Cultural Centre in Livadhja was restored in 2022 - 2023, at 13,913,319 lek; the reply does not state how this project was financed. A new museum was built in Livadhja in 2023 through MILESTONES III, at 3,073,839 lek. Together these investments, 28,063,230 lek, are worth more than all the municipality's culture spending during the period 2020 - 2025, and the two MILESTONES projects, 14.1 million lek, are among the few cases in this series where EU supported cross-border funding reached cultural infrastructure.
5. Staff
Five staff were engaged in culture during the period 2020 - 2025. The figure is given for the whole period, not year by year, and there is no indication of their roles.
6. Planning and public participation
Finiq has no strategy or policy document for culture. It held one public consultation a year during the period 2020 - 2025. In 2022 the municipality also surveyed 56 residents from all administrative units on priorities for its medium term budget: lighting and public services, economic development and tourism, fire protection, irrigation and water supply were rated highest, while culture was not among the priorities.
7. Culture across the municipality
Activities use the Cultural Centre in Livadhja, school buildings and the central squares of villages. Two of the three heritage investments are in Livadhja and one in Dhrovjan, outside the administrative centre. The reply does not give the number of activities by administrative unit.
Conclusions
- Finiq has no cultural institution; five staff work on culture and about 10 activities are organised each year.
- The planned culture budget rose from 1.5 million lek in 2020 to 8.05 million lek in 2024, while the share spent fell from 52.0% to 15.5% in 2025.
- Heritage investments of 28.1 million lek restored or created three cultural buildings in Dhrovjan and Livadhja.
- Two of them, worth 14.1 million lek, were financed through the MILESTONES cross-border programme.
- The municipality consults residents once a year, but has no culture plan, and culture was not a priority in its 2022 survey.
Recommendations
Explain and close the gap in the culture budget
In 2024 and 2025 more than 6 million lek a year planned for culture was not spent. The municipality could explain the reasons in its budget report and either plan activities that use the funds or set a budget that matches what it can deliver.
Give the restored buildings a programme
Three restored or new cultural buildings now exist in Dhrovjan and Livadhja. A yearly programme for each, prepared with the schools and the villages' associations, would help them serve residents and visitors and justify part of the unspent budget.
Report activities and staff each year
Listing the activities by name, date and village, and the staff who work on culture each year, would show how the 10 activities a year reach the five administrative units.
Build on cross-border cooperation
MILESTONES funded two of the three heritage projects. The municipality could document their results and prepare new proposals under EU pre-accession and cross-border programmes, for example for the programme of the Livadhja museum.
Prepare a short culture plan
A plan for three years, discussed in the yearly public consultation, could set out how the municipality will use its venues, its budget and its heritage, and include culture as a question in future surveys of residents' priorities.
About the data
Population figures come from the INSTAT 2023 Census. Budget, activity, staff, heritage and consultation figures are as reported by the municipality. The 2022 survey comes from the municipality's documents on the ceilings of its medium term budget plan for 2023 - 2024; no medium term budget plan tables of the municipality were found published online for comparison.
Every effort has been made to base this analysis on the data provided by the municipality, complemented with data from its Medium Term Budget Programmes (PBA) published online. For comments or questions, please contact artivista@arti-vista.org.
This article was prepared within the CulturAL project, with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the National Centre for Community Services and Artivista Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
