EU urges Albania to solve property title claims

TIRANA, Feb 9 – An European Union sponsored seminar last weekend brought together experts to discuss potential solutions to Albania’s property issue.
Government bodies, donor agencies and international property experts gathered in Tirana for the seminar “Freehold Property Rights on the land: possible instruments and solutions for governments to reduce costs of transaction from FDI perspective,” which aimed at generating solutions for the main issues relating to ownership in the Albanian legal system, namely property registration, restitution and compensation, and legalization.
Albania must solve the huge problem of unclear and disputed property titles in order to attract foreign investors and meet EU criteria for eventual membership, said Helmuth Lohan, the EU’s ambassador to Tirana.
Economic progress in Albania has suffered because of fuzzy ownership titles affecting almost all families and eroding citizens’ confidence in democracy and the courts.
“The need for strengthening and facilitating an environment favorable to business creation and growth is not only a specific requirement of the European Partnership, but primarily a precondition for Albania’s own welfare. A resolution of the restitution and compensation issue, for instance, would boost Albania’s economic and land market development, making it more attractive to foreign investors.”
Participants shared the experiences of other countries through case studies on topics such as land acquisition in process of FDI support in industrial zones in the Czech Republic, bilateral investment treaties as a safeguard of investors’ property rights, the Polish legal framework for purchasing land by foreign investors, land purchasing under Foreign Direct Investments in Poland, land acquisition for public purpose in Poland, and the process of property acquisition by nationals and non-nationals in Greece.
“Clear property titles and legal security are essential prerequisites for the prosperous development of the country, the attraction of foreign direct investment, social peace as well as for the country’s European integration process,” Lohan said.
Governments in post-communist Albania have had little success to return property to rightful owners expropriated after World War Two by the late communist dictator Enver Hoxha.