Opposition takes new maritime border demarcation to Constitutional Court

TIRANA, Oct 21 – The main opposition Socialist Party and five other smaller political parties took to the Constitutional Court the verification of an agreement that the government had signed with Greek counterparts earlier this year on the demarcation of the maritime border line at the Ionian Sea at the southernmost district of Saranda.
Saimir Tahiri of the Socialists Party said there were too many unclear points in the Albanian-Greek deal that needed to be verified by the court whether they were in line with the country’s constitution.
Some military and other experts and the opposition have contested some 150 maritime coordinates set in the agreement, saying they favor Greece and take hundreds of square kilometers from Albania.
There has been a loud cry in the tiny Balkan country against the government’s deal which they said ‘granted’ many kilometers of the sea area to neighboring Greece.
There have also been voices that Albania ‘sold’ the area following pressure or other ways due to the building of an international gas pipeline that would pass through the Corfu strait to shorten its route from Greece to Italy.
The government has denied such accusations saying that everything has been inline with the country’s laws and based on international standards.
The deal was signed during a visit by former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamalis to Tirana just before the parliamentary elections in Albania earlier this year.
Foreign Minister Ilir Meta said that the parliament postponed the ratification of the sea border with Greece to give more time to the opponents and show the transparency of the deal.