"Environmental fines are not collected" - Qirjo: 23 million euros uncollected. Damages are processed as misdemeanors, not as crimes
Violations of the law that protects the natural environment, land, water, forests, air, etc., are a daily and flagrant reality, but the establishment of justice seems more like a legal mirage.
This is the conclusion of a series of five in-depth studies, presented by a coalition of civil society organizations led by the Environmental Resource Center (REC Albania), which have scanned every link in the system, from field inspectors to Appeals judges.
The findings reveal that over 90% of environmental damages are processed as administrative offenses, but even when the administrative system attempts to act through fines, they are not enforced.
"Only 11.4% of fines are actually collected, leaving millions of euros of financial damage unrecovered and perpetrators unpunished. It is estimated that over 10 million euros of administrative fines and 13 million euros worth of damage caused to the forest fund (2014-2017) are uncollected ," said Mihallaq Qirjo, executive director of the Environmental Resource Center (REC Albania).
The series of studies found that the State Police appears to suffer from technical poverty, while the lack of experts attached to investigative bodies and scientific laboratories to conduct expert assessments and determine the extent of environmental damage often causes investigative bodies to fail to provide scientific evidence, crucial to the fate of the investigation and trial process.
The lack of evidence often causes the prosecution to become an “archive” for environmental complaints, while the paradox deepens at the doors of the courts, where environmental justice is delayed and without priority, with cases occupying a negligible volume of 0.25% in the Court of Appeal. According to Qirjo, unfortunately, even the media, which should serve as guardians of the public interest, has failed to exert pressure, providing superficial reporting.
"This report comes as a wake-up call for society, legislators and the executive. The environment is not decoration, but the basis of life and the economy, and without environmental justice, the functionality of the rule of law remains compromised ," he said.
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