Old law limiting purchasing of land to citizenship to be abolished

TIRANA, August 05ؐeople of Albanian origin, but who hold a foreign citizenship, will soon enjoy the possibility to purchase land in Albania by completing the same procedures as Albanian citizens.
The promised was made yesterday by Premier Berisha during a cabinet meeting. According to him, it is important that land distribution should function under the principle of equality and Albanians living abroad should not be discriminated from purchasing Albanian land in all shapes and forms.
The premier also added that it is necessary that the Albanian origin can be equally assigned from the mother’s or from the father’s side in order that no one is left out.
“The law should be drafted in the most careful way in order that anyone of Albanian origin, whether from the mother or from the father, can equally benefit. The law should also cover nationality and citizenship, because in some countries it is required that foreigners give up their original citizenship in order to gain the citizenship of the host country. Albanians should be one and the same when it comes with dealing with land property in this country,” said Berisha.
In addition, Berisha added that it won’t be far away when EU citizens too will enjoy the same rights as Albanians regarding land property rights. However, for the time being, the law aims the equality of those of Albanian citizenship or origin only.
The new law, already under drafting efforts by the Ministry of Agriculture, is expected to be approved in the first session of the new parliament coming out of the June 28th elections.