CoE to ask Venice Commission’s advise on Albania’s law on former secret police

TIRANA, Feb 11 – The Council of Europe has said it will ask its advisory body on constitutional maters to give an opinion on Albania’s new law barring former Communist secret police and their informers from serving as public officials.
Two co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee for Albania visited the tiny Balkan country to meet with top local officials to express their surprise on Albania’s lack of willingness to ask for advice on a controversial law.
“It has been very surprising this time that the government of Albania hasn’t been willing to cooperate with the international community on this law,” said Jaakko Laakso from Finland, adding they would “ask for an opinion from the Venice Commission.”
The Council of Europe, which is based in Strasbourg, France, urged Albania to change the content of the law which fails to comply with international standards of democracy.
A new law barring former Communist secret police and their informers from serving as public officials in Albania entered into force last month despite strong objections from opposition parties which said it could be exploited by conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha to cover his personal and his cabinet’s corruptive cases.
For more than four decades until 1990, Albania was governed by a xenophobic Communist dictatorship with a powerful and widely feared Sigurimi secret police force.
Opposition parties have challenged the law in the Constitutional Court, saying it violates at least 28 articles of the Constitution.
Albania, seeking closer ties and eventual membership of the European Union, also is sensitive to international criticism of its political reforms.