Ratification would make Albania the 10th country to approve the mechanism, which requires 25 states to enter into force, Gogu told a parliament session.

Around 65,000 claims have so far been submitted to the Register of Damage, which the commission will review and use to determine compensation, the minister said.

He added that Albania would make an annual financial contribution to the mechanism.

Gogu also commented on Wednesday’s first-instance verdict by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague against four former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders.

He said the verdict had been received with “deep disappointment,” while stressing that an appeal was the appropriate avenue for challenging the ruling.

Gogu described the KLA’s war as “a just, necessary war of liberation.”

“We do not support international justice only when we like its decisions. But neither do we remain silent when they disappoint us,” he said.

/m.q/j.p/r.e/u.sh/