Governor without new immunity, Socialists’ initiative leaves out arrest protection for Bank leaders

Two months after the Ministry of Finance put out for consultation a new law on the Bank of Albania that provided for immunity for the Governor and Deputy Governors, in order to protect them from arrests and searches, a new initiative by Socialist MPs filed in Parliament no longer contains this provision.

The new initiative, presented by MPs of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group and filed in Parliament on September 25, 2026, signed by Milva Ekonomi, a Socialist MP and chair of the Committee on Economy, Employment and Finance, clearly defines what happens if the Governor or Deputy Governors are dismissed from office.

But the Socialist majority itself has not included in the new amendments to the law on the Bank of Albania the special procedural protection, which only a few months earlier had been proposed in a new comprehensive draft law on the Central Bank.

“The Governor dismissed from office has the right to appeal the dismissal decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union, while the other members of the Council may appeal the dismissal decision in accordance with the legislation on administrative courts.”

On July 15, 2026, the Ministry of Finance had published for consultation the new comprehensive draft law “On the Bank of Albania”. The consultation remained open until August 12. In that draft, Article 72, “Special provisions for administrators”, established special protection for the Bank of Albania’s top leaders, who could not be arrested or deprived of liberty, nor subjected to a personal or home search without the authorisation of the Constitutional Court.

But, two months later, the initiative chooses a different path. Instead of approving an entirely new law on the Bank of Albania, the September 25 draft law intervenes only in some provisions of the existing law No. 8269/1997.

The package contains 7 articles and deals with issues related to monetary financing, lending to the public sector, government securities, the required reserve and the status of the Bank’s leaders. But the protection from arrest provided for in July does not appear in the new initiative, as Top Channel reports.

This means that, if the package filed on September 25 is approved, the Governor and Deputy Governors will not gain through it the protection proposed in the July draft.