Yesterday, Speaker of Parliament and Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) leader Ilir Meta held a meeting with environmental specialists and representatives of the Alliance against the Import of Garbage (AKIP) relating to the Waste Management Law, which was recently rejected and returned to Parliament by President Bujar Nishani.
After the meeting, several media outlets reported that Meta and other LSI deputies will not revote in favor of the law.
According to Lapsi, “secure sources within the LSI have confirmed that this party will not pass Rama’s project.”
According to Artur Zheji, publisher of 360gradë, who was present at the meeting, “Meta said that without a consensus with civil society and public opinion he wouldn’t vote in favor of the Waste Management for a second time.”
However, the official statement released on the website of Parliament does not appear to reflect any of the words reported the participants and different media, but rather shows Meta balancing civil society and public opinion against everything else:
Mr Meta valued their engagement with this sensitive question, underlining that would like that the approval process of such a law could would be able to all possibilities of dialogue, understanding, and consensus with civil society, representatives of the recycling industry, and public opinion, with the aim that the law would serve the interest of the citizens, the image of Albania, the economical growth of the country, the development of tourism and agriculture, and would increase employment and positively influence the protection of the environment and the health and life of the citizens.
Meanwhile, the LSI remains the only party which has actually voted in favor of some form of the waste management law twice.
In 2011, when it was in a coalition with the Democratic Party (PD), the LSI didn’t make any statement regarding the law on waste management, merely voting in favor of the law when it came to Parliament.
Five years later, in 2016, now in coalition with the Socialist Party (PS), it again voted in favor of a similar law. The only difference was the proposal for an amendment to the law, which would give civil society a role in the customs clearance of waste imports. The law passed with the 63 majority votes, including 15 of the LSI.
Within a few weeks the law will again be presented in Parliament, after President Nishani refused to sign it into effect.
