Erjon Brace, chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Economy
declared that the amendment of the Bank of Albania laws aims to make it
more similar to the Constitution, which doesn’t specify that the
Governor should be an Albanian citizen.
Brace says that besides having consulted this issue with international experts, the removal of citizenship as a condition for the leading roles of the bank is a practice used in western countries as well.
“We are not doing this for bringing a foreign citizen, as it has been speculated these days, but to give more opportunities to Albanian citizens who have abandoned the Albanian citizenship for immigration reasons”, Brace declared.
The Parliament is in the process of appointing two members for the Bank Supervisory Council who could be candidates for governor. Brace says that none of the candidacies comes from a foreign country.
Nishani declared that he would propose an Albanian citizen
Despite the arguments given by the Commission of Economy, the law amendments for the Bank of Albania seem to be more of an emergency intervention, directly related to the appointing of the new Governor.
The government had warned law amends right after the theft scandal at the Bank’s vault, but by then, removing citizenship as a condition for leading roles was not part of the list of arguments that according to him gives the need for changing the law.
The reason were others: eliminating conflicts of interest at the bank, limiting the Governor’s mandate and taking this institution outside a leadership which is based on nepotism and political ties. These three reasons made it necessary for amending the Bank of Albania law, and te context after the scandal gave the majority a strong public compromise.
But the draft approved by the Commission does not address to any of them, except for the Governor. This change comes while the President is about to send the name of his candidate to the Albanian Parliament. This might create institutional conflicts between the Parliament and the Head of State., That would not help the Bank of Albania, a vital institution for the national economy, which is now being led by an incomplete council and an acting Governor.
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