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Rezart DIBRA, Phd Candidate European University of Tirana (UET).rezartdibra@yahoo.com.Jetmir BODINI, Master(DND),University of Tirana, Economics Faculty.jetmir.bodini@yahoo.comMINORITY SHAREHOLDERS PROTECTION AS IMPORTANT PART OFCORPORATE GOVERNANCE. HOW PROTECT MINORITYSHAREHOLDERS IN ALBANIAN COMPANIES.AbstractMonks and Minow (2001) describe the board of directors as: The link between the peoplewho provide the capital (the shareholders) and the people who use the capital to createvalue (the managers). This means that boards are the overlap between the small, powerfulgroup that runs the company and a huge, diffuse, and relatively powerless group thatsimply wants the company run well.Corporate governance is about the way in which boards oversee the running of acompany by its managers, and how board members are in turn accountable toshareholders and the company. Good corporate governance plays a vital role inunderpinning the integrity and efficiency of financial markets. Poor corporate governanceweakens a company’s potential and at worst can pave the way for financial difficultiesand even fraud. If companies are well governed, they will usually outperform othercompanies and will be able to attract investors whose support can help to finance furthergrowth.Whatever differing views there may be - perhaps regarding the method used to carry outreform - it is crucial to acknowledge that corporate governance reform is a globalphenomenon facing somewhat unique challenges in different business districts andsectors. For example, for much of mainland Europe a key governance issue is thepreponderance of controlling shareholder blocks. The presence of such blocks oftencreates significant dangers for investors that lie outside the dominant block, and in suchmarkets protection of these minority shareholder rights remains the key challenge forcorporate governance to address.This discussion aims at introducing the main changes brought by the new AlbanianCompany Law on minority shareholders protection. In 2008 the new law “Onentrepreneurs and commercial companies” was enacted. This Law was a significant partof Albanian Legislation when the shareholder right was protected. The latter introducednew practices and concepts, some of them not familiar to the Albanian legal system. Iwas motivated to prepare this discussion in this conference on minority shareholdersprotection in order to emphasize the new regime and instruments of protection granted by48