A provision that raised serious questions over the summer about special treatment for the leadership of the Bank of Albania appears to have been taken off the table. The new initiative filed in Parliament by Socialist Party lawmakers no longer includes the procedural protection that the July draft granted to the governor and deputy governors against arrest and searches.
What changed from the July draft
On July 15, 2026, the Ministry of Finance released for consultation the new comprehensive draft law “On the Bank of Albania,” with the consultation period open until August 12. In that version, Article 72 provided for a special regime for the institution’s administrators.
paragraphs does not appear in the final text.
According to the draft published at the time, the top leaders of the Bank of Albania could not be arrested, deprived of liberty, or subjected to personal or home searches without authorization from the Constitutional Court. It is precisely this part that is missing from the new initiative submitted to Parliament.
PS’s new initiative in Parliament
The new draft law was filed on September 25, 2026, by lawmakers from the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group. Among the signatories is Milva Ekonomi, a Socialist Party MP and chair of the Committee on Economy, Employment and Finance.
Instead of an entirely new law on the Bank of Albania, this initiative opts to amend only several articles of the existing Law No. 8269/1997. The package contains 7 articles and affects issues related to monetary financing, lending to the public sector, government securities, the required reserve, and the status of the central bank’s leadership.
No special shield against arrest
In the text filed in Parliament, the provision that would have given the governor and deputy governors a special judicial filter for arrest or searches is no longer found. This indicates that the majority itself has taken a step back from the formula proposed only a few months earlier.
In practical terms, if the September 25 package is approved, the leadership of the Bank of Albania will not receive through it the special protection that had been envisaged in the July draft.
How the governor’s dismissal is handled
The new initiative also sets out the appeal route in the event of dismissal from office. According to the proposed wording, a dismissed governor has the right to appeal the decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
For the other members of the Council, the appeal is envisaged to be made in accordance with the legislation on administrative courts. This is one of the points the new initiative clarifies, while leaving out the most controversial element of the summer draft.
The removal of the special protection from the new version does not publicly explain why such a sensitive formula was initially introduced and why it was later abandoned. This leaves open the question of whether the July draft was a political test that could not pass without cost.
For now, what emerges from the documents filed is that the governor and deputy governors do not benefit from the procedural immunity that had been envisaged earlier.