The houses of worship in the country will pay the same electricity tariffs as household subscribers, instead of paying business tariffs as thy have done until now. This initiative of the government to the advantage of the houses of worship was announced by Prime Minister Edi Rama during a visit he paid to the St. Athanasius church in Selenicë, where he was received by father Spiro Bulika and many believers.

“The electricity tariff will be reduced for all houses of worship, for ultimately they are houses of believers and they will pay like households. I think this will facilitate very much in financial terms all worship institutions”, the Prime Minister explained.

More than a thousand houses of worship still need to be formalized after two decades of reconstruction. The church of St. Athanasius in Selenicë is one of them. In 1967 it had the same fate as all other houses of worship in the country. Bu the absurdity went on even after the 90s, as the church was reconstructed and restored, but it was not legalized. Prime Minister Rama handed the legalization permit of the church over to father Spiro.

“We’re here to give the legalization permit of your church. There are over one thousand houses of worship that don’t have papers. I wonder how come they didn’t legalize any church or mosque, so they would have washed away their sins at least for a week. But they didn’t”, the Prime Minister said.

“Today, justice was done for a perennial unfair situation created by the past regime. Today, we are fortunate to receive the documents for the church. Thank you! It was built in 1812, and it was partially destroyed in 1967. There were frescos and mural icons among the most beautiful in Albania, and they were destroyed. Its restoration began after 1990 with the aid of the Vlach community of Metsovë, and this is how it looks today”, father Spiro said.

In Selenicë, like everywhere else, legalization of houses in the past eight years has been almost negligible. This process is now completed in Selenicë. “4 legalizations were made here in more than 8 years until 2013, whereas we concluded them and now 435 houses are immovable property of the residents. The hard work of all those in immigration and worked to build a house has finally become a capital at the service of families.”