Albcontrol, responsible for air navigation in the country, will no longer serve as a commercial company, but as a public entity.
During the examination in the Committee of Economy and Finance, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Enkelejda Muçaj, said that Albcontrol should be a non-budgetary entity that cannot aim at profit, as it is when it is registered as a JSC.
Mucaj said that all the assets and activity of Albcontrol, which until now is owned by the Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation, pass directly to Albcontrol as a public entity.
The rapporteur of the draft law, Vullnet Sinaj, said in the Commission that among the points of the new air control law are the sources of funding as an entity, where the main source is that of service fees. But the state budget will also be a source of income for Albcontrol, when it is "threatened by independent or extraordinary causes".
In this context, when Albcontrol has been financed several times from the state budget, the democratic deputy Edmond Spaho said that the status of the company is changing only because of the trial of Albania with Francesco Becchetti.
"The law was made because of Becchetti's trial and because Albcontrol's funds were seized in the accounts it has in Vienna. The prime minister's desire to control the media has led us to an international arbitration, where Albania lost, and to pay the fine, external funds were blocked," said MP Spaho. The other democrats in the commission had the same attitude.
Socialist MP Erion Braçe asked the government representatives in the commission to provide details from the trial with Becchetti and to show "whose interest they are protecting".
Deputy Minister Muçaj said that the new law is not at all the result of whims, but only because of the status of society and the importance that air navigation already has in our country.
Regarding the questions about Becchetti, Muçaj said that it is a matter that belongs to the state attorney's office and not to the ministry it represents and added that Albcontrol itself is not part of any conflict. However, she admitted that Albcontrol has a lack of liquidity due to this trial.