The cry of protesters that ‘Albania is not for sale’ is misinterpreted when it is portrayed as a rejection of all investment. Its proper interpretation is procedural: any transfer of common assets must take place in full transparency – with prices determined through competition, permits made public, and beneficiaries clearly
Evarist Stoja
A company granted a stretch of Albania’s Adriatic coastline lists its official address as the 12th floor of the European Trade Centre in Tirana, where, according to a BIRN investigation, “there was no company sign, and building staff said they were unaware of any company by that name”.
A public asset belonging to all citizens is now registered under the name of a company that cannot even be found at its own listed address – because its ownership has been ‘constructed’ as a chain of corporate shells, one nested inside another, with the final shell empty. In that vacuum is where the problem begins.
Attempts to frame the public debate over luxury tourist developments in Zvernec, on the Albanian coast, and nearby Sazan island as a choice between environmental protection and economic development are, at best, unhelpful. At worst, they are misleading.
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