Raad van Europa bezorgd over patstelling tussen gemeenteraad Tirana en Albenese regering over publieke werken (en)

Strasbourg, 16.12.2005 - President Giovanni Di Stasi of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (Council of Europe) met today with Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana and Congress member. Following this meeting President Di Stasi told the Congress Bureau of his "serious concerns regarding the deadlock between Tirana municipal council and central government about public works in the capital."

"The Congress was first informed about this difficult situation a few weeks ago," said Mr Di Stasi, "but we hoped that the deadlock would be overcome. Now it has to be said that this regrettable state of affairs is still continuing and is seriously upsetting the smooth operation of local self-government in Tirana."

"We remain receptive to the calls made by the Mayor of Tirana, especially since the municipality has exhausted all domestic remedies for resolving the situation and the ombudsman's conclusions have not been acted upon. That raises questions about our assessment of the positive development of local democracy in Albania and demands action by the Congress."

The Congress Bureau has therefore decided to send a fact-finding team to Tirana to see whether the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government are being complied with in practice, especially as regards Article 8 which provides that supervision of local authorities should aim only at ensuring compliance with the law and exclude any supervision of the expediency of actions that fall within local authorities' own areas of responsibility. Moreover, the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality remain key aspects of any administrative supervision by higher-level authorities.

The Congress stands ready to engage in dialogue with the Albanian authorities and hopes that a solution based on observance of the law and local authorities' rights will be found to the current situation.

Press Contact

Council of Europe Press Division

Tel. +33 3 88 41 25 60  - Fax. +33 3 88 41 39 11

E-mail: PressUnit@coe.int