Belind Këlliçi, deputy chair of the Democratic Party’s parliamentary group, accused the majority at a meeting of the Conference of Chairpersons of leaving opposition bills unexamined and failing to set dates for their consideration.
He called for a package of four initiatives to be added to the agenda and put to a vote: repealing the law on Strategic Investments, the amendments to the law on Protected Areas, the law on the Mountain Package, and several provisions of the law on Cultural Heritage.
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Referring to the law on Strategic Investments, Këlliçi said that, after 11 years of implementation, 98% of the contracts had gone to five oligarchs and representatives of organized crime.
According to him, only 2% involved foreign investors, including two people he described as friends of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Këlliçi linked the failure to consider these initiatives to concerns raised in the European Commission’s report.
He also said the majority was weakening parliamentary oversight, undermining the opposition’s constitutional rights and failing to implement Constitutional Court rulings.
Excerpt from Belind Këlliçi’s remarks:
The opposition’s initiatives still have no date set for consideration. This shows that the same practice is being repeated: our bills are set aside and not taken into account.
Let me remind you that we have submitted a comprehensive legislative package calling for:
1. Repealing the law on Strategic Investments.
2. Repealing the amendments to the law on Protected Areas.
3. Repealing the law on the Mountain Package.
4. Repealing several provisions of the law on Cultural Heritage.
These initiatives are being blocked, even though they should have been included in the first parliamentary session.
Let me be clear: these are not just proposals from the Democratic Party. They are connected to direct requests from European Union institutions and to the conditions for Albania’s progress in the European integration process.
These laws are problematic, favor certain interests and raise concerns about corruption. They run counter to democratic principles and European Union standards.
The same pattern appears in each of them: the law is used to put property, territory and public assets at the service of private interests.
In my view, this practice encourages favoritism, extortion and illicit enrichment, and is also linked to corruption, concealment of assets and money laundering.
The law on Strategic Investments deserves particular attention.
After 11 years of implementation, Këlliçi said, 98% of the contracts awarded under this law had gone to five oligarchs and representatives of organized crime, who had been granted strategic investor status.
He added that only 2% of the decisions involved foreign investors, and that these, too, concerned two people close to Prime Minister Edi Rama.
He also cited claims that the law had been used to launder illicit money, particularly in the coastal construction sector.
Mr. Speaker, it is your responsibility to put these initiatives on the agenda and ensure that they are considered and voted on in Parliament.
Why am I raising this issue today? Because this meeting is taking place just days after the publication of the European Commission’s report. The report gives Albania a stark assessment and, unfortunately, its criticism also includes Parliament.
One of the concerns listed in the report is the weakening of parliamentary oversight. You bear direct responsibility for this, Mr. Speaker.
There can be no democratization or progress toward European integration if the majority violates the rules, the law and the Constitution by treating Parliament as a one-party institution. Decisions cannot be based on numbers alone; they must respect the Constitution, the law and parliamentary rules.
The report highlights Parliament’s democratic dysfunction and the infringement of the opposition’s constitutional rights; the violation of equality before the law in the case concerning Belinda Balluku’s immunity; and the parliamentary majority’s failure to implement several Constitutional Court rulings. These are just some of the problems mentioned.
Dear colleagues, put this institution back on the path of constitutionality. Parliament must not be used as an antechamber for the Socialist Party.
The country’s institutions are not private property and must not be made to serve political interests while the opposition is excluded from their normal constitutional functioning.
You have done this and, as a result, have lost the trust of citizens and provoked the anger of students. You acted this way believing that power and the institutions belonged to you.
But the institutions belong to no one.
And the political consequences of governing this way are already clear.
