TIRANA, May 26 /ATA-By Maela Marini/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday described the resolution of property rights in Albania as one of the country’s most complex challenges, while highlighting digital technology as a key tool in addressing long-standing disputes and advancing the country’s EU integration path.
Speaking at a regional conference titled “From Property to Progress”, which brought together representatives from Western Balkan countries, Rama said digital transformation had delivered “a real blessing” for Albania by enabling reforms that would otherwise have been extremely difficult to implement.
He said Albania’s transition from a fully state-owned property system under communism to a post-1990 reality marked by weak territorial control had created lasting legal and administrative complications.
“There is no other country in the region where property rights have been under such pressure,” Rama said, adding that the past 35 years had produced one of the most difficult reform environments the country had faced.
Rama also pointed to what he described as irregularities in the early post-communist period, including conflicting ownership claims and misuse of land-use certificates that later enabled widespread disputes.
He said Albania had been forced to adopt new legislation, developed in consultation with international partners and endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights, to address compensation and ownership claims.
However, Rama noted that legal challenges persist, saying some court rulings continue to rely on outdated laws, creating additional financial burdens for the state.
He said digitalisation and artificial intelligence were increasingly helping authorities process complex property data, but warned that the quality of results depends on accurate underlying information.
Rama also said Albania’s broader EU accession process remained a demanding institutional exercise, but insisted that ongoing digital reforms, including full digitisation and future blockchain applications, would help resolve long-standing ownership disputes and reduce opportunities for abuse.
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