Land registration and road signs in Albania's south coast assisted by €1.5 million European Union-funded project implemented by OSCE

Photo: Protest of the people of Himara in August 2008 for their lands and properties which are attacked by Mafia. The protesters have dual citizenship, Albanian and Greek, remembering the OSCE that they are European citizens and finance this process, which must to be transparent for their generations.

TIRANA, 21 July 2011 – This EU funded €1.5 million technical assistance project, implemented by the OSCE Presence in Albania was presented today in Tirana. This project in a key touristic region of Albania aims to complete the first property registration and updating of existing registration for some 60,000 properties in coastal areas of the country from Palase Gjolek in the north to Xarre. This will give owners clear legal title and boost the potential for investment in the region. The project also includes new street signs installed in Saranda, Selenica, and Armen, and soon to be installed in six other areas (Golem, Qender Vlora, Orikum, Lukova, Delvina and Dhiver) at a cost of €103,000.

Speaking at the project presentation, Ambassador Ettore Sequi, the Head of the EU Delegation to Albania, said: “Clear property titles and legal certainty are essential prerequisites for prosperous development of the country and attracting foreign investment. Only when such a system is finally in place will Albania become an attractive location for foreign investors to establish operations leading to employment generation.”

The Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth, stated: “The project will assist the Government in increasing security of tenure, which is crucial for the sustainable development of the coastal area. It will also provide a basis for officials and lawmakers to formulate appropriate laws, policies and procedures to establish clear property titles and to protect this right.”

The project collects and processes property-related data and facilitates public participation in a transparent process that will provide public institutions with the information required to accurately determine and protect property rights. It offers natural and legal persons the opportunity to provide documents and information demonstrating a right to property and to request legal recognition of this right. All documents and maps collected and generated under the project will be handed over to the Immovable Property Registration Office.

The project, which receives additional funding from the Governments of Greece (€100,000), the Czech Republic (€50,000) and Switzerland (€30,000), is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.

Note: The Himara Community and the Coastal Association stated that the registration land by OSCE, is favoring the Mafia not inhabitants of the regions. According the statement "the process is to failure because the corruption and the missing of the transparency by the the Albanian companies that menage the process, is evident.