Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Club Med quits Albania resort, cites land problems

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA, June 16 (Reuters) - France's Club Mediterranee has quit a project to operate a holiday resort on Albania's Ionian coast after a prolonged dispute over the ownership of the site, a letter by Club Med revealed on Tuesday.

The five-year old controversy over who owned the horseshoe shaped bay facing Greece's holiday island of Corfu illustrates the confusion over title to property in post-communist Albania, a tangled problem deterring investment.

The European Union, which expects Albania to break with its history with free and fair elections on June 28, has also urged it to solve the problem of disputed titles to attract foreign investors and meet the criteria for membership.

'There's no project for a Club Med in Albania,' Florence Le Gall, Club Mediterranee's director of regional development, wrote to villagers claiming ownership of the land at Kakome, near Sarande in southern Albania.
Chrystel Baude, a Club Med spokeswoman, confirmed the authenticity of Le Gall's letter.


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