Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the signing of the inter-institutional agreement on cooperation in the field of property protection:

This is a very important moment in a process that the Albanian government has launched since it came into office, on the one hand by putting under control the completely chaotic and corrupt situation at the Agency of Property  Restitution and Compensation; on the other hand through direct involvement of the General State Bar in this process, and last but not least, by establishing a Task-force which for a quite significant period of time has considered the situation in the region of Vlora as Albania’s most problematic region in terms of the property situation.

Following this process, we are here to open a second phase on the basis of this institutional arrangement that guarantees an intensive and daily collaboration in order to counterattack robbers and forgers of property.

The Attorney General said in his speech that this process has been delayed over the years, and therefore it is very harmful to the process of integration in the European Union. In addition to this, I would say that, besides being a major obligation of Albania to meet one of the basic requirements for being a functional democracy and a state of law, it is also a priority for us in relation to the obligation we have towards the next generations. Albania’s next generations shall not inherit a country where robbers and forgers will enjoy forever the product of their criminal act.

The stabilization of the legal regime of property in our country has still a long way to succeed, but it is a necessity. Just as no strategic development draft, in general, for our economy and no strategic development project to meet this major priority, which is our economic development, cannot give us the result we want, if economic development becomes a space detached from the normal development of property.

The State cannot close its eyes in front of a cancerous phenomenon which over the years has touched and violated every cell of the whole body of the legal security of property, and has practically turned it into a gangrene that prevents further development of the country and contradicts property interests of citizens and real owners.

In making these efforts during this first period of government, we became familiar with the horrible and undisputed facts that hundreds and thousands of hectares of land were stolen by using forged documents. Theft and abuse has occurred on a large scale in a system that has provided a short connection between the robbers, the executive power and without any doubt, the judicial power. The protracted process of property restitution and compensation, as well as decision-making until 2013 in this area have done nothing but create optimal conditions for the expansion and intensification of this cancer in the body of our country.

It is therefore very important that the radical reform in the property system, which will end this endless story that made Albania a place of mishmash when it comes to property, is only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is the opening of this second phase, through a very deep and successful surgery that will attack any counterfeit act that has produced through crime an illegal pecuniary interest and an entirely faked right on property.

The prerequisite for ending this scandalous affair of over-delay and procrastination through legal and transparent procedures is to hit the products of criminal offense of property alienation through fraud.

There are hundreds of such cases just in the region of Vlore, but I would like to bring to your attention three cases where people can understand clearly how far abuse has gone, and to what extension the consuming power of the robbers has acted, with the frightening sensation of immunity that nobody has given them, but nobody has contested them either, before this government.

A very recent case is the reservoir of Velipoje, part of the wetland protected landscape of the Republic of Albania, and part of the list of areas of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. Once the recognition of ownership, return or compensation of 50 hectares have been claimed, when required, the court decision has returned 500 hectares! This is very clear to all of you who are experts in the field, but I believe that there is nothing ambiguous for every citizen listening to us. You submit to court an application to receive 50 hectares, and the judge, with the generosity of a king or a sovereign ruler, gives you 500 hectares instead of 50. In addition, these 500 hectares are part of a land which is a protected area and is not returnable pursuant to the laws of this republic, but also under international conventions. This has been done through absolutely false expertise acts deposited in court, or through the use of documents which do not prove the alleged ownership.

Another case, here in the south, where we managed to neutralize the attempt to record and alienate 30 hectares constituting one of the most marvelous bays of the Ionian coast, through false documents, judicial acts and absolutely worthless acts, which are verified by the Task force. But the scariest thing is that all these acts have been produced following an initial registration with no act in the mortgage office. First I record it, and then I do the acts.

Another case in Durres beach, where according to documents of origin in the archive, the property is positioned on the top of the hill, while the court gives a property located by the seaside. A spectacular shift of an abusive piece of property, since the one on the hilltop was not property of the claimant. And while the contender ask for the property on the hilltop, the court gives the property located by the seaside.

Such robberies do not occur in today’s Europe, but they have not occurred in the darkest days of the Ottoman Empire either, which, however, in relation to property was many, many times more stringent than the Albanian state of the two previous decades.

Today’s message for all those who are by the side of the state in the field of this great battle, representing the prosecution, representing the police, representing the General State Bar, representing the Agency for Restitution and Compensation of Property, is that prescription can save perpetrators of the robbery from criminal sanctions, but it cannot pardon the product, and it cannot legalize the product of robbery as a legitimate product of the looters. So, the thief stole the property, the offense was prescribed, and what he stole remained him as property. This is inconceivable. And for this reason, the agreement signed today is of fundamental importance in order to finalize in a way that would be obviously not easy the process for neutralizing the products of the offence of property extortion, and for restituting the property to the owner, whether it is state or the real owner.

These four institutions have in their hands the fate of the property in Albania, and by having in their hands the fate of property in Albania, they have also in their hands the fate of the next generations. All those involved in this operation should be aware that they have a heavy burden to bear, because the responsibility is enormous and success in this battle has an extraordinary historical significance for the moral integrity of this country, for the legal integrity of this country and for the economic development of this country.

Of course, this meeting does not formalize a collaboration arising from the law, but it formalizes an absolutely joint approach with a view to a common strategy, to act together for a joint operation. Hence, to investigate, to verify and confirm, and to process pursuant to the law any act, document or denunciation leading to the culprits and makes it possible for the product of the offence to return to the citizen. This requires work with special intensity and a very special commitment of all of the structures and of all of the individuals who in these structures will be engaged directly by the superiors of these institutions to take part in this battle.

Support of the Attorney’s General Office, but in particular the support of prosecution offices of the districts, to initiate criminal proceedings for any notification of a criminal offense relating to the falsification of documents which affected the right of property, is a vital necessity for this process. What is more important, through this coordination, is to provide and make available material evidence through which we will succeed in destroying counterfeit documents and seize them under the provisions of the legislation in force.

I am aware that had it been a struggle just with looters, it would have been much easier. But this is not a struggle just with looters; it is a fight also with the judges because they are opposing parties in this process. Judges who hide behind collegial decisions that have become final in many instances and are currently unpunishable under these conditions. But only for now, because I am convinced that justice reform will create new conditions to separate fact from fiction and to make a distinction in a lawful and professional way between those who deserve to wear the robe of the judge and hold the great responsibility of being a guarantor of freedoms and human rights in this country, and those who not only do not deserve the robe of the judge, but who deserve even less than any free citizens of this country.

Undoubtedly, the State Police has a very important role in carrying out the responsibilities of investigative actions and expertise of the Scientific Police to which the government has given recently, in view of this process, full support to enhance technological capacity. This was made upon request of the State Police, but also with the legitimate insistence of the Attorney General, so that the acts of expertise shall not be like the acts of counterfeiting. What do I mean by this? I mean that they shall be very solid and indisputable.

Meanwhile, the General State Bar will continue the work started very willfully and with encouraging data in order to really become an unwavering defender of property interest of the state, and in every case of abuse of the state property and of unlawful benefit of property, it will be a voice and a very strong mechanism in this process.

This is our will, and this is the normal will of every democratic country and every government that should ensure the functioning of the mechanisms of the executive power in view of the functioning of democracy.

And obviously, inclusion, readiness and willingness of the Attorney’s General Office to be in this process is a very good omen for success.

I hope very much, and I wish that in the periodic meetings that the heads of these four institutions will have with all those engaged in the field, meetings that I will attend with great readiness, we will stop talking about what we will do, but we will speak the language of facts and results. Those who have stolen state properties and huge potentials for the economic, tourism  and industrial development of this country, and who have the courage and the impudence to hinder this development, or those who have robbed property of others and have the courage and the impudence to behave as if they were the grandchildren of the real owners, have escaped thanks to prescription of the offence only the individually punishment of the law, but they have not saved and will not save the product of their offense, and will not enjoy the stolen property.

This is the motto of this will, and this is the objective of this operation.

Many thanks to everybody, and I wish cooperation, patriotic commitment and joint success in this operation.

 

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Four institutions, the Agency for Restitution and Compensation of Property, the Attorney’s General Office, State Police and the General State Bar signed an agreement of cooperation in the field of property protection.

The agreement was signed during the conference held in Vlora, where the launch of the institutional action was announced based on an intensive cooperation guaranteed by this agreement, to answer the abuse, corrupt benefit and alienation of property through fraud.