TIRANA, Oct. 17 – The latest property rights law approved by Albania’s parliament is in compliance with Council of Europe standards, according to an opinion of the Venice Commission, the CoE’s advisory body on constitutional law.
Justice Minister Ylli Manjani made public this week an opinion of the commission addressed to Albania’s Constitutional Court.
The Venice Commission looked at Law Nr. 133/2015 on the request of Albania’s Constitutional Court, which wanted an additional expert opinion in regards to the controversial property compensation bill which was vetoed by President Bujar Nishani and met with opposition from the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Association of Former Landowners. The ruling Socialist Party, which sponsored the bill, overrode the presidential veto.
In an 11-page document, Venice Commission argued that “under the new compensation scheme, the compensation issue could be solved within a period of 10 years with the amount of ALL 50 billion which has been carefully determined in the light of the state budget as a whole and the Albanian GDP.”
The document also said that “Law Nr. 133/2015 has provided clear deadlines for the implementation of secondary legislation as well as for all steps in the procedure and the activities of the Property Management Agency.”
According to the Venice Commission, “it is the Constitutional Court of Albania that has the final say on the binding interpretation of the Constitution and the compatibility of national laws with this text.”
Albania’s Association of Former Landowners claims the recent law violates the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and European Human Rights Court decisions.
The Constitutional Court had previously turned down a request by parties involved to suspend the implementation of the bill until a final ruling by the Venice Commission. Meanwhile, Property Management Agency has already approved a long list of former landowners that will benefit financial compensation.
The government is seeking to minimize the burden of a huge financial bill deriving from this controversial issue as well prevent additional rulings by the European Human Rights Court in favor of former landowners expropriated by Albania’s communist regime and other government decisions.
The law which aims to compensate former landowners for properties seized under communism was approved in December 2015 and was enforced earlier this year.
In the next 10 years, the government plans to allocate about 439 million euros and 23,000 hectares of agricultural land in order to compensate about 26,000 families that have already won the right to payouts. Another 11,000 are still awaiting official recognition for their seized assets.
