During today’s meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions (PETI), a petition on the subject of “Rights of the Greek national minority in Albania” was discussed.

The member of the Greek national minority and petitioner pointed out that “Albania is moving towards the European Union, but at the same time, the fundamental rights of Greeks there are systematically violated”, adding about the property of the minority that “almost every family has an outstanding property issue, which was confiscated during the communist regime and despite 34 years after its fall, they have still not managed to secure their properties. There are thousands of cases stagnating in Albania’s administrative courts, and this is because those who go to court face delays. At the same time, and while the European Union has allocated resources to reform the Albanian judiciary, the vetting process for judges continues to be conducted in an opaque manner. Furthermore, he asked the Commission to ensure that the protection of our rights is a priority in Albania’s accession negotiations and to demand “the implementation of the laws and the return of our property.”

The European Commission representative (DG NEAR) underlined that “the common European position, as regards the first package for the pre-accession negotiations, is that there is a set of clear ambitions and criteria there, which Albania will have to fulfil in order to join. And there are clear criteria in there as regards property and the protection of property rights.”

In addition, he said that “there must be progress in terms of a system of registration, registration of property reliable, comprehensive, with secure property titles. And part of the commitment will be progress in terms of full digitisation, whereby all property titles and all relevant maps are digitised and we have reliable data. Also, that complaints are adequately addressed and that the first property registration system is completed. Reference was also made to litigation, which relates to property issues. Again, we explicitly ask Albania to be able to proceed and accelerate so that we can obtain court decisions on these.”

ND and EPP MEP and Vice-Chairman of the Petitions Committee, Frentis Beleris, referred to the violations found in the Albanian elections by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) concerning “state interference and the imprisonment of opposition figures”. In addition, he referred to the issue of the thousands of missing persons in Albania during the communist regime who “to this day are not entitled to a decent grave and their relatives cannot even light a candle for them”. Finally, he stressed that “the Albanian people see their future in the European Union. However, all of us must not make any discounts and help Albania to become a country of the rule of law. I will be here to applaud the positive steps, but point out any omissions.”

It should be noted that with a broad bipartisan consensus it was decided to keep open the said report on the rights of the Greek ethnic minority, something to which the MEP of the Hellenic Solution, Mr. Emmanuel Fragos and the MEP of the Eleftheria Group, Mrs. Maria Zacharias, who took the floor, agreed. Finally, the Bureau of the Commission asked the Commission to submit a written reply after further investigation of the issue.