Adoption of the law on remission of obligations for the former servicemen

Published: Thursday, 28 April 2016 16:00

Parliament of Albania today adopted with 75 votes the law "On the remission of obligations that former servicemen have in the supplementary pension scheme, by the pension recalculation pursuant to Law no. 10142, of 15 May 2009, 'On the supplementary social insurance of servicemen of the Armed Forces.' as amended".

By this law will benefit 37% of former servicemen, to who is remitted 13 billion ALL, or 20% of their pension that was previously paid in the Social Security Institute.

The speech of Minister Kodheli during the parliamentary session on April 28, 2016

The purpose of this draft law actually is providing a solution to the long term problem of former servicemen category, caused due to an inconsistent legal framework, unstable and often abusive, which was disputed since the first steps of its drafting. This law has been constantly disputed not only by a group of former servicemen, but also by the opposition of previous years and judged, deposed or approved by the Constitutional Court with its own controversies.

The approved solution that government brings today for adoption is the remission of obligations by former servicemen that resulted debtors as a consequence of the retroactive effects of the recalculation of pensions pursuant to a law, I would say infamous, that dates back to the last days of December 2010, as well as the period of information extraction and processing on the average salary during the service reference.

This draft law in fact has been proposed as a commitment undertaken by the Albanian government, both in its political and electoral program of first elections in 2013, where it was said and predicted that would solve the legal hindrance affecting many former servicemen.

During the period from 1999 to 2009, the military of Armed Forces, of Ministry of Interior and AIS, who had retired or released after July 1991, were treated with transitional payments, early retirement and benefits and other supplementary benefits under the provisions of Law No. 8087 of 1996, later amended only for the State Police, who were treated with early pensions and supplementary benefits under the provisions of another law. Within this period, the law on supplementary benefits for the military has been disputed and amended 4 times; in 1996, 2005, 2006 and 2009, thus creating one of the largest legal farragoes that brought consequently a very unpleasant situation in disfavor of this category.

The 4 (four) laws that I mentioned before, were next rejected in the Constitutional Court. By repealing each other these laws found no application due to higher financial effects or opposition coming from the formula applied by former servicemen.

In November 2010, was approved the infamous normative act no. 5, of the Council of Ministers, which took the power of law and was approved late in 2010, a day before the New Year holiday season. This law was different as it also fundamentally changed the formula of pensions, the implementation of which resulted in the recalculation of pensions for early supplementary retirement from which is recorded to have been 6738 former military personnel debtors, or approximately 35% of the former military a cost or an amount of over 1 billion ALL.

For former servicemen, whose recalculation documentation, was taken quickly, the value of debt has actually been lower and has been gradually erased. For others this was a financial burden which simply had an impact on their family budgets. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court decision on February 2013 left the former military a financial burden of 1.3 billion. Stemming from this consistent gap and in the legal framework stability constantly disputed as I mentioned above, were created obligations, which could not be afforded by the family budgets of former-servicemen. So this has been a very strong reason for the government to propose and come here with an apology which I strongly hope and believe that we will be approved today onwards.

At the end this was mentioned earlier by my colleagues, which also mentioned by my colleague Mr. Klosi, whom I thank from my heart for the cooperation we had, according to ISS until the end of February 2016, are 5425 former military which shall be forgiven a liability of 980 million ALL. This law eventually zeroes this financial liability, this is a promise kept by the government, of which we are modestly proud of.

Hence, I thank you and invite you to vote it.