' When Prime Minister Edi Rama demanded in the form of an ultimatum the maps with priority areas for investments within the framework of the Mountain Package, many mayors were followed, as was Minister Besfort Lamallari when he learned that he would be administering justice .'
This is what AB*., who is the head of urban planning in one of the small municipalities in Central Albania, declares for Voxnews.al .
As an official who knows the process of identifying land on papers without owners, but de facto with owners, he says that the construction of these maps is not as simple a process as the Prime Minister described in his speech to the mayors, when he was told that the Mountain Package will put an end to the conflicts caused by Law 7501.
"The Mountains Package in the requested form is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it could legally free up for investment properties that are currently in use without documentation. On the other hand, it could increase conflicts over ownership," says AB.
According to him, the message that the Prime Minister left to the mayors to avoid the offices of the State Cadastre Agency, or not to wait for responses from these offices regarding the status of the property for which information is requested, is at best a slip of the mind of the Head of Government and at worst 'an invitation to the mayors to also make prison for the Mountains Package'.
"Information from the Cadastre cannot be avoided when it comes to property issues, especially since out of the 100,000 files that are in stock in the courts, 70 to 80,000 are related to property conflicts," he says.
Municipalities, AB continues, cannot include in the maps of the Mountain Package a property that is being contested in the courts. “ This is like telling a prison to open ,” AB continues.
*Note: The initials AB were chosen by the Voxnews.al editorial team after a request for anonymity from a local official.