Kosovo takes action against illegal construction

Kosovo takes action against illegal construction

Authorities arrest officials suspected of corruption, draft new laws and destroy illegal structures.

Kosovo authorities are destroying illegally built structures. [Laura Hasani/SETimes]

Kosovo is implementing measures to address widespread illegal construction that has endangered basic citizen needs and served as a means for money laundering, experts said.

Authorities this month arrested 10 municipal officials in Pristina, including the chief of the construction inspectorate, on suspicion of enabling illegal construction.

"The special prosecutor's office asked us for a number of files. We co-operated and a number of these files are being investigated," Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti said.

Moreover, Kosovo's Environment and Spatial Planning Ministry drafted a reform package to legalise the structures.

"Now, the municipalities have a three-year deadline to legalise all structures on their territory, and end once and for all the saga of the unlimited freedom in construction," Kreshnik Berisha, an adviser to Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Dardan Gashi, told SETimes.

Legalisation will begin when the municipalities are ready, and the ministry will support them in the process, Berisha said.

Concurrently, the government began destroying the bigger illegal structures that cannot meet any legalisation criteria. In Prevalla, a tourist area in the Prizren municipality, authorities destroyed 200 structures. Albania has also started destroying illegal structures that it cannot legalise, given the enormous number of such buildings and houses.

Macedonia is three years into a programme to address 400,000 illegal buildings. The government...