Jorida Tabaku, as president of the European Affairs Commission and president of the National Council of European Integration, organized a joint meeting at the Presidency of the Assembly of Albania on Friday, February 9 at 12:00.

H2H Foundation was represented by Erjon Kalaja, as one of the 28 organizations and experts who initiated this consultation process.

The topic of the discussion was the concerns of the Environmental Organizations regarding the recent proposals of the socialist deputies for the law “On some additions and changes to the law no. 81/2017 “On Protected Areas” for review by the Commission for European Affairs.

Environmental Organizations consider extremely important the need for this draft law to be expanded for discussion and consideration in other committees, with a focus on the Commission for European Affairs, because this draft law needs to align the law with the legal framework of the European Union, with Directives, regulations and international principles such as the IUCN and the Conventions in which we participate and have ratified as a country.

This need is due to several reasons:

1- The draft law proposes changes to the Law on Protected Areas, while the latter has been aligned with the aquis Communautaire, as a result, any change must go through the alignment process in the same way.

2- The draft law is contrary to the principles of IUCN in the procedures of drafting environmental laws.

3- The draft law brings rights regression from the current legal protection that Protected Areas enjoy today.

4- The draft law has overlooked the expertise needed for drafting, before the discussion at the political/parliamentary level.

This amendment to the law in the form and manner that is proposed violates European Integration, especially the criteria defined in Chapter 27 of Integration, as well as creates larger legal spaces for the development of intensive infrastructure and construction activities in these areas, seriously compromising the integrity of the areas protected and going against the spirit of the existing law.

Environmental organizations advocated for a complete revision of the entire law on protected areas. Emphasizing the complexity of environmental legislation, which requires that the procedure for its approval be passed with the proposal of the relevant Ministry of the Environment, where it is discussed at a technical level, which can only be ensured by specialists in the relevant fields.