President vetoes property restitution law

TIRANA, Aug. 16 – Albanian President Bamir Topi has vetoed and returned to parliament a law on the property restitution and compensation, in a move that could further aggravate his already tense relations with the governing Democratic Party.
The president published a long explanation saying that in order to have a law that is closest possible to the human rights and constitutional standards, he had decided to return it to parliament “because I consider there is room to be reviewed concerning its constitutionality and also to make it as applicable and efficient as possible.”
The law is one of the most controversial ones in post-communist Albania with former property owners always complaining of lacking the proper will from the authorities to give back their old properties.
Tiny Albania has always found it very difficult to find the proper areas for restitution and funding.
Some Albanian families have turned to the Strasbourg court to ask for their property rights. Local media reported that 13 families have opened a case in Strasbourg asking for compensation from the Albanian government, a move that may be likely done by about 400 others.
The property law is also a key issue which the country should resolve along its integration efforts into the European Union.
Any law passed by the parliament should be decreed from the country’s president, who is entitled to turn it back only once and is obliged to decree it if it comes a second time.
The law returned from the president is also debated from the association of the old owners, many members of which have turned down the compensation given from the authorities considering it ridiculous. They say the compensation in money could reach 10 billion euros, or some 35 hectares of land.
They have also complained that the government has not given them many public areas along the country’s beaches.
The association condemns the post-communist governments for such a “public debt” that should be paid to them.