Berisha proposes reducing lawmakers’ privileges, lift immunity

TIRANA, Oct. 5 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that lawmakers had many other privileges which practically gave them 1.5 times higher financial profits compared to him.
The premier said that no where in the world lawmakers had a car and a driver at their service, which he considered as an act of corruption abusing with the taxpayers money.
The premier said he would undertake a legal initiative to reconsider their financial status.
Speaking at a government meeting he said their privileges should be in accordance with the European standards.
“There is no country in the world where the lawmaker gets 1.5 times more than the premier in per diem and others, ” he said.
A day earlier it was an opposition lawmaker who accused parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli of abusing with public funds with many useless trips abroad.
Berisha also appealed to the opposition to support his initiative of lifting the immunity along the efforts of fighting corruption in the country.
Berisha said that immunity was one of the major obstacles in the fight against corruption, which is still considered as a main shortcoming for the country’s efforts toward integration into the trans-Atlantic organizations.