Tabaku breaks down 10 years of the “Strategic Investment Law”: 9 amendments and 6 extensions! Parliament used as government’s notary

Deputy of the Democratic Party, Jorida Tabaku, has reconstructed the chronology of the Law on Strategic Investments, from its adoption in 2015 to the continuous extensions and today’s debates on its repeal.

Tabaku recalled that the law was initially presented as a temporary instrument aimed at attracting foreign investors and promoting investments in strategic sectors of the economy.

But, according to her, after a decade of implementation, it has turned into a mechanism for distributing public assets and properties without competition to a limited group of beneficiaries.

The Democratic deputy stated that the law has been amended nine times, while six of these interventions had the sole purpose of extending its deadline.

“Before the ink had even dried on the law, the government brought the first request to extend the deadline in 2018. The law has been amended nine times, six of which just to extend its deadline,” stated Tabaku.

She recalled that, from the moment the law was adopted in 2015, she had proposed several amendments aimed at protecting private property and prohibiting state intervention in relations between two private owners.

According to Tabaku, the amendments sought to prevent the taking of a citizen’s property at a reference price and then handing it over to another private entity, but they were rejected by the votes of the socialist majority.

The PD deputy also focused on her 2022 initiative to halt the effects of the law. She said the proposal was rejected with the argument from government representatives that the law had been useful and that work was underway on a new, permanent investment framework.

For the PD deputy, the Law on Strategic Investments is one of the clearest examples of tailor-made laws, while Parliament has been used as a “government’s notary” for narrow interests.

“This system cannot be dismantled by those who created, conceived, voted for, and implemented it. This system will be changed by Albanian society. The repeal of this law means removing one of the bricks upon which the system of favors has been built,” Tabaku concluded.

Full speech of Jorida Tabaku:

For weeks and months, the whole of Albania has risen up against a dishonest system. A system that has been built day by day by the socialist majority; built brick by brick, through decisions and laws that, unfortunately, have burdened the middle class.

A system so dishonest that 95 percent of it rests on the back and the fragile shoulders of the middle class and Albanian families, while wealth is distributed to the few.

This dishonest system was not built overnight. It is linked to tailor-made laws, to decisions, and to the way the country has been governed during these years.

The example par excellence, the best example of abuse and implementation of a law that shows how the government acts and operates, is today the Law on Strategic Investments.

The Law on Strategic Investments was first adopted, on the government’s proposal, in 2015. It was presented as a law that would bring foreign investors from every corner of the world and attract investment to Albania.

Investors would receive public assets, private property, permits, access to procedures, tax breaks, and fiscal favors to invest in our country.

But, at the end of the day, during ten years of its implementation, this law has served to distribute these public assets and private properties, taken from Albanian families and citizens, only to a tiny handful of people.

At the moment the law was adopted, in 2015, I proposed several amendments specifically related to the issue of property. To the fact that the state cannot intervene in a relationship between private parties, take the land of a citizen or a family, expropriate it at a reference price—and not at the market price—and then give it to another private party. These amendments were rejected by the force of voting cards, as always.

Before the ink had even dried on this law, the Albanian government brought the first request to extend its deadline in 2018.

The law has been amended nine times. A full nine times, six of which only to extend its deadline. The first extension came with a request from the majority.

Meanwhile, they had promised to work on a framework law for investments. It is said that they are still working on that law today. The new law never came; only successive amendments to the Law on Strategic Investments arrived.

The second request came from a group of deputies in 2019. Request after request and amendment after amendment, in every case we proposed amendments.

In 2022, even after the European Commission’s demands and after it had emerged as the most abusive law, granting public assets without competition or fair tendering to a small group of businesses close to the government, I requested that its effects be halted.

In the lengthy debate we held in several parliamentary committees, government representatives proudly defended the law and its results.

They cited “Durrës Marina” as an example, which, again, is an extraordinary example of abuse, corruption, and lack of competition in the economy. Instead of attracting a Western investor, we again chose the usual government suspects. In 2019, in 2020, and in 2023, all of these were extensions of the Law on Strategic Investments.

All these extensions were approved by the force of voting cards. Deputy after deputy and group of deputies after group of deputies, without any compromise, raised the card and voted for this abusive law; for the law against which citizens across Albania have risen up to protest today.

Just a few months before the 2025 elections, the government requested the next extension, until December 31, 2026, while having undertaken to suspend this law.

This commitment was also linked to Albania’s obligations and negotiating position in the integration process, as well as to the issues regarding the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

The law distributes public assets and properties without competition and without tendering. It kills the economy and has mainly granted permits for hotel construction in tourism, without attracting serious foreign investors.

In another attempt, a request was made that the deadline be extended until December 31, 2027. This was later accompanied by changes to the law on tourist ports, to give every strategic investor the opportunity to also acquire a port.

This is the chronological history of this law. This is the truth. These are the facts, written in black and white, about this abusive law; about this law that today it is promised will be suspended.

About this law that has become a long debate between Albania and the European Commission. About this law that, unfortunately, reveals the socialist system, the system of the few, and the system of favors.

It is the system of taking public and private lands, the system of removing taxes and granting access to public assets without competition. Now, how much can the government’s propaganda be trusted?

How much can those who built this system be trusted that they will dismantle it? How much can those who today weep with crocodile tears and say that the protesters or the opposition are to blame be trusted? How much can those who have changed this law six times only to extend its deadline be trusted?

Nine amendments in total and never to improve competition in the economy, never for meritocracy, and never for competition. Always to favor a small group of people.

This system cannot be dismantled by those who created it. This system, with laws that pass through Parliament turning it into a mere government notary; with laws that change for narrow interests and that capture the state, cannot be changed by those who designed, conceived, voted for, approved, and implemented it.

This system will be changed by Albanian society. We must all change it together. Perhaps the results have been slow to come, because this law has caused much damage to the economy.

But dismantling this law is removing one of the bricks upon which the system has been built.

The system of the few, the socialist system, the system that has suffocated the economy, that has killed competition and that today has become the main obstacle to Albania’s development. Only by removing this majority can this system be dismantled.

Little by little, law by law, decision by decision, and favor by favor. Just as they have granted them, so they must be removed. We will change this system.