The Assembly resumes work with the controversial laws on gambling and protected areas

2024-01-12 17:32:00, Aktualitet CNA

The Assembly resumes work with the controversial laws on gambling and protected

Prime Minister Edi Rama

The Assembly will start the new parliamentary session with a focus on the new laws proposed by the socialist majority, such as the one for the return of gambling and the liberalization of investments in protected areas.

In the work calendar for the period January 15 - February 2, 2024, approved on Thursday without the presence of the opposition at the Conference of Speakers, the vote in the plenary session on February 8 of the draft law "On gambling" is foreseen, a proposal from the Council of Ministers that in July.

The new legal provisions that propose the return of online betting more than 5 years after their ban by law by the government.

The law was approved without any substantial debate in the Laws committee, but they caused objections and debate in the Committee on Economy and Finance, causing its introduction to the plenary session to be postponed several times.

The government argues that by means of the new law it tries to formalize the activity of betting after admitting that it could not control its operation illegally during this period.

According to the new proposals, sports betting will only be allowed online, the right to exercise this activity will be given only to 10 operators and their selection will be made through a special commission and strong criteria.

The law was opposed by the opposition, by the betting association and those for the protection of players. Even the socialist MPs themselves have not managed to find a consensus among themselves in the economy committee, where possible changes to the government's initial proposals are being discussed.

Meanwhile, in the 3-week calendar of the start of the new session, the majority foresees the vote on February 15 of the legal initiative of the SP deputies, which paves the way for the further destruction of the Protected Natural Areas by allowing touristic and economic investments within theirs.

Environmental protection activists called it a "scandalous development" and unanimously opposed the initiative.

The proposals provide for the removal of the articles that constitute the essence of the current law, where the possibilities of use with "intensive human activities" are excluded and a change in the form of their management, leaving municipalities in administration of no less than 20% of the area's area protected that are in their territory.

The new work calendar does not foresee the discussion of initiatives for the electoral reform and why a decision of the Constitutional Court has given the Assembly until January 14 to change the law on guaranteeing the vote for the diaspora.

Bills and elections of leaders in independent institutions that require a qualified majority of votes will encounter difficulties to be approved, if the opposition does not return to participation in parliamentary life.

This session is also expected to start in a tense situation that described the last weeks of the previous session, where the opposition protested trying to block the sessions, after the majority rejected its demands for a parliamentary investigation of the government.

Meanwhile, the SP took a number of decisions unilaterally, such as changing the parliamentary regulations by toughening the punitive measures for disrupting sessions and changing the law on investigative commissions./ Reporter.al