TIRANA, April 21 – The Constitutional Court has turned down a request by President Bujar Nishani for the suspension of a property compensation law recently adopted by parliament. The ruling means that former landowners will be compensated under the formula foreseen in the new law.
The President had argued that the law violates the constitutional principle of legal certainty, equality before the law as well as it goes against the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the standard established by the European Court of Human Rights.
Alongside the President, the Democratic Party, the Republic Party and associations of former land owners had also petitioned the Constitutional Court to abolish the law.
Before taking the matter to the Constitutional Court, President Nishani had returned the law in parliament for review; however the chamber adopted the law unchanged without taking into consideration any of the President’s objections.
Through this law the government aims to put an end once and for all to the property issue in Albania and is hopeful that the property restitution and compensation process will be completed within the next ten years.
The compensation bill for former owners amounts to €360 million.
Thousands of families were expropriated by the Communists when they took power following the end of World War II and efforts of many post-communist governments to definitively resolve the property restitution and compensation issue have so far failed. The unresolved property issue has had serious financial consequences as well as social effects in Albania. Not only it holds back foreign investments due to ownership disputes, but it has also resulted in an extra financial bill because of several rulings of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in favour of families who have been expropriated.
