Albania

  • On the Criteria, Rules, Procedures and Framework Agreement for the Lease of Agriculture Lands owned by the State
  • On Food Labelling and Provision of Information to Consumers
  • On State Aid Regulation
  • On the Amendments of the Contract Model for the Sale of Electricity
  • On Certification of Management Systems for Information and Personal Data Security and Protection

Decision no. 373, dated 20.6.2018 "On the criteria, rules, procedures and framework agreement for the lease of agriculture lands owned by the state"

The Council of Ministers based on Law no. 8318, dated 1.04.1998 "On the Lease of Agriculture and Forest Land, Meadows and Pastures which are owned by the State", approved the Decision no. 373, dated 20.06.2018 "On the criteria, rules, procedures and framework agreement for the lease of agriculture lands owned by the state" (hereinafter "Decision 373").

According to Decision 373 the following lands may be leased to third parties:

  1. all free areas of agriculture land owned by the state, which are under the administration of ministry in charge with agriculture (hereinafter the "Ministry");
  2. state-owned agriculture land leased from former agriculture directories, whose lease contract term has expired or expires after the entering in force of Decision 373.

For purposes of such Decision, the Lessor means the state represented by the Ministry and/or the institutions under the supervision of the Ministry, which have the right to enter into lease agreements regarding state owned agriculture lands through approval of the Minister. The procedure of lease of agriculture lands owned by the state involves a publication in its official website by the public entity in charge with the administration of these lands of the announcement for lease. Interested parties having ownership claims or other claims that are in a judicial process regarding the state-owned agriculture land parcels publicly announced for lease may present such claims to the Lessor.

The granting of the lease is subject to a bidding process. The Lessor is responsible for drafting the necessary bid documentation and instructions, registration of requests, organization of the bid procedure, announcement and notification of the Board1 's decision approved by the Ministry, and monitoring of lease agreements.

The Board is in charge of assessing the offers presented for the lease of agriculture lands, of guaranteeing equality between the participants/bidders where there are several offers for the same agriculture land as well as taking the relevant decisions within the terms set out in the Decision 373.

The annual lease price is determined according to the quality of the land within the set limits as below:

If an agriculture land, object of the lease agreement, is part of more than one parcel with different categories, each parcel shall be calculated separately, and their sum shall be the total value of the land.

The Lessor is in charge of the monitoring of the performance of contractual obligations and of the agreements entered into pursuant to the Decision 373. For such purposes a register of lease agreements is kept, the form and substance of which are approved upon an instruction of the Minister.

Footnotes

1 The Board for the Evaluation of Offers for the lease of agriculture land is composed by not less than 5 members: 1 representative of the entity in charge for the administration of agriculture land, a specialist of agronomy or livestock, a specialist of economy or city planner, a lawyer, a representative from the regional agency of extension.

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