The Committee of Ministers decided to end its supervision of cases concerning the general measures relating to the structural problem of Albania’s failure to enforce domestic decisions on restitution of or compensation for properties nationalised under the Communist regime (Manushaqe Puto group). The decision was adopted in view of the significant progress made by the authorities over the last few years with the adoption and subsequent fine-tuning of a domestic compensation mechanism whose proper and efficient functioning was ensured.
Since 2014, the authorities have been providing sustained political, financial and technical support to end the long-standing absence of an effective mechanism concerning enforcement of final decisions on restitution or compensation. In 2015, a new compensation mechanism was adopted by Law No. 133, which was then positively assessed by the Venice Commission and accepted by the Albanian Constitutional Court, and which has proved to be successfully working.
Other measures taken included: very significant resources allocated from the State budget to cover payment of all compensation claims (with a Financial Fund of 50 billion Albanian Leks and a Land Fund estimated at 99 billion Albanian Leks – a total of about 1,2 billion euros); measures to ensure the efficient functioning of the Property Management Agency (implementing Law No. 133); establishment of a national system monitoring the functioning of the mechanism.
