“Land belongs to those who work it”

This land was distributed in 1991 through law 7501, but without giving property titles to beneficiaries. The Socialist MP, Erjon Brace, accused the majority of adding an exclusionary law that gives the land to those who have worked it for agricultural production. “But who would work on a land without having the property title”, Brace asked.

“There are 11.000 hectares of land, and every Albanian must hear this, for 8000 families. I am emphasizing these numbers, because the law is against these 8000 families. The government will take these 11.000 hectares from them and give it to the government’s clients”, Brace declared.

The Minister of Agriculture, Genc Ruli, explained that the initiative was only about the agricultural lands, and not for those that the Council of Territory Regulation has turned into urban development lands.

“It is all about fulfilling legal documents by keeping the same criteria, especially the basic criteria, the evaluation, which has been subject to the land beneficiary, according to the law of that time. Whoever that will take the property title today, must not have changed his residence”, Ruli decalred.

The Environment Minister, Fatmir Mediu, as leader of the Republican Party, raised the concern about the physical absence of land for compensating the former owners.

“This law diminishes or rejects the probability of turning it into a physical compensation, because all of us are aware that there is not a single meter of unoccupied land in the Albanian territory. All of it has been illegally occupied and changed. Where will we find the funds for a physical compensation of the owners”, Mediu declared.

Despite the opposition from the Socialists or the Republicans, the laws passed with the votes of the majority.

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