Second Environmental Performance Review of Albania

30 Part I: Policymaking, planning and implementationThe income from penalties goes to the State budget. The Criminal Code can be applied: “When the fine isIn the majority of cases the imposed fines are not not paid in due time, the court decides on replacingcollected. There is not yet an efficient mechanism for the fine with imprisonment, calculating 5,000 lek forcollection. However, pursuant to the penal each day of imprisonment”.legislation, if fines are not paid, environmentalinspectors can: 2.6 Environmental standards and their• Impose supplementary punishments (Article 30 enforcementof the Criminal Code);• Replace the fine with imprisonment (Article 34 The 2007 Environmental Cross-cutting Strategy setsof the Criminal Code).a number of objectives for alignment with EU andWHO standards, but these are not yet operational. AirIn spite of these legal provisions, fines imposed by emission norms were approved by the 2002 DCM onenvironmental inspectors are not paid by the due date the Approval of Norms of Emissions into the Air,or are simply not recovered (table 2.4). The main No. 435. Air quality standards are under preparation.reason is the weakness of the state institutions.Table 2.3: Legal sanctions issued by the Environmental Inspectorate, 2003-2011Year200320042005Fines,number7116101CommentsN/AN/AM ost for working without an environmental permit2006 106 M ost for working without an environmental permit and some for workingin non-compliance with the environmental permit2007 83 M ost for working without an environmental permit and some for workingin non-compliance with the environmental permit2008 126 A new development is that some of the sanctions have been applied forviolations observed, mainly for natural resource exploitation activities,urban waste cleaning and industrial activities.2009 99 Some of the fines are for not supplying self-monitoring data and violationof the norms for noise from bars and restaurants2010 265 There are some sanctions for pollution and marine discharge2011 (Jan.-Sept.) 134 Some sanctions were issued to State operators, hospitals, LGUs,municipalities and the Directorate of Roads at M oPWTT.Source: Ministry of Environment, Forests and Water Administration, 2011.Table 2.4: Collection of fines, 2003-2011Year Fines Method of fine collectionNumberValue,million lekCollected Forgiven Forgiven*2003 N/A N/A N/A2004 N/A N/A N/A2005 19 14 5.00 Cashed at the bank account of M oEFWA2006 4 4 1.20 Paid voluntarily2007 12 5 1.18 Paid voluntarily2008 2 7 3.10 Paid voluntarily2009 0 1 2.00 None paid2010** 9 6 5.80 Paid voluntarily2011 N/A N/A N/ASource: Ministry of Environment, Forests and Water Administration, 2011Notes: * Forgiven according to articles 83-84 of the Law on Environmental Protection.** In 2010 two fines were cancelled by the competent court, to a total value of 1.7 million lek.