The European Commission has asked the Albanian government to repeal the 2024 legal amendments affecting Protected Areas and abolish the Strategic Investments Law, while in parliament the majority is blocking opposition initiatives to repeal them.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Edi Rama to repeal the Strategic Investments Law and the 2024 amendments to the Protected Areas Law, increasing pressure on the Albanian government to align with European standards, while daily protests in Albania have entered their second month.
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Asked about the specific project in the protected area of Zvernec that sparked the public protests, Commissioner Kos said that: “environmental protection is part of the EU accession criteria, very important criteria, and there are currently a number of laws that need to be changed in order to meet this criterion.”
“Even before these protests began, we had agreed with Albania that the 2024 amendments to the Protected Areas Law would be repealed during this year,” she stressed.
Kos made the statements at a press conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama, following the ninth Albania-EU intergovernmental conference, where the closure of three negotiating chapters was formalised.
Rama himself gave an unclear response to the request concerning the Protected Areas Law, while repeating that the tourism project in Zvernec would go ahead.
“Repeal means annulment, and the Strategic Investments Law will be repealed and annulled, while the Protected Areas Law, which is one of the best laws we have, will be adjusted until it reaches 100% of European standards,” Rama said.
The controversial Strategic Investments Law, approved in 2015 as a temporary law to encourage foreign investment in strategic sectors of the economy, in fact served as a mechanism to facilitate coastal construction projects by businessmen close to the government.
The Socialist majority voted to extend its effects six times, despite having committed to drafting a new investment law as part of the negotiating document with the European Union.
Meanwhile, the 2017 Protected Areas Law was amended in 2024 through a non-transparent process, without genuine consultation and despite opposition from environmental organisations and criticism from the EU, removing legal safeguards for protected natural areas and paving the way for their concrete development through construction projects such as the one in Zvernec.
Since the protests began, the Democratic Party has submitted two legislative initiatives to parliament to repeal the 2024 amendments to the Protected Areas Law, but neither has been put up for consideration.
On Tuesday, the Socialist majority opposed adding to the agenda of the parliamentary Tourism Committee a legislative initiative by MP Ina Zhupa proposing the repeal of the legal changes made in 2024 to the Protected Areas Law. As chair of the committee, she proposed scheduling her initiative, which had been submitted to parliament as early as 14 May, but the Socialist deputy chair of the committee, Erjon Malaj, said the majority was against it and that such initiatives should be included in the calendar after a decision by the Conference of Chairpersons.
Redi Muci, an MP from the Together Movement, has also submitted similar initiatives seeking the repeal of what are considered “tailor-made laws”, including provisions of the Protected Areas Law.
Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku noted on Wednesday during a meeting of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee that none of Rama’s “commitments” had been reflected in parliament’s work schedule for the final weeks of this parliamentary session.
“These are neither oversights nor government mistakes; they are the way these people have operated, the way they have distributed public assets,” Tabaku told BIRN, recalling the opposition’s continuing efforts against these laws.
According to Tabaku, the Strategic Investments Law has been extended six times and, over these years, she says there have been at least 15 communications with the European Commission, the delegation and the European Parliament, stressing that the law is contrary to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and affects Chapter 27 of the integration process.
For this reason, Tabaku sees Rama’s statements not as serious promises, but as a “stalling tactic”.
“This is a concern not only for the EU, but also for competition in the country, because these laws have undermined competition, harmed public assets by distributing them without tenders, and created a dangerous precedent for the future, because these laws do not come separately; they are part of a package of tailor-made laws,” Tabaku said.
MP Redi Muci also views Rama’s statement with distrust, while his initiatives to repeal these legal provisions requested by the EU remain in parliament’s drawers and are not being considered.
“In fact, it seems to me that Rama has been forced to adapt to Marta Kos’s narrative, as well as to the European Parliament resolution, but I do not believe he will repeal these legal changes, because Brussels has previously made requests regarding these problematic laws,” Muci said.
According to him, the Albanian government’s strategy is that of a ‘fait accompli’, as happened with the Zvernec investment, “where the area earmarked for construction was fenced off and work began without any state document to justify the entire intervention.”
Muci warns that pressure to repeal these legal provisions could have the opposite effect.
“It will accelerate interventions in Protected Areas, but I believe it will face difficulties because of people’s reaction,” he said, considering the protests an obstacle to the government’s plans, as happened in Zvernec./BIRN
