Meanwhile, French parliament deputy Charles Fevre told reporters that Macedonia is a moderate country without any territorial aspirations and with a satisfactory level of ethnic coexistence. Yet, he underlined Macedonia's fragility due to outside pressures. He stressed that France is inclined to help Macedonia overcome its problems through concrete bilatyeral projects, such as the Vardar Valley Project. Fevre also pointed out French interest in the university in Bitola and hoped for closer cooperation in future. As for Macedonia's problems with Greece, he announced the possibility of greater aid by France because it currently has the presidency of the EU.
Meanwhile, the Tetovo District Attorney brought new charges, this time against Arben Rusi, president of the "El Hilal" humanitarian organization and Musli Halimi. The indictment accuses them of participation in a crowd preventing police officers from exercising their duty. The District Attorney. requested that they be held in custody during the investigation.
The Union of Albanian Intellectuals appeals to the entire intelligentsia in Macedonia, and particularly to Macedonian intellectuals, to affirm the need for higher education of the entire population, especially of ethnic Albanians. Pointing out higher education of ethnic Albanians cannot possibly harm anyone, the Union says it is not becoming of those who are highly educated to be against educational and cultural progress of a part of the country's population. The Unions stands against any form of repression of freedom of speech and believes the imprisoned intellectuals ought to be released.
The goal of this analysis is to effectively contribute to the acceleration of the denationalization process in Macedonia, by clarifying essential economic aspects concerning the process. Therefore, it primarily includes a short comparative review of the practical implementation of denationalization in countries currently undergoing transition processes. The second part of the analysis states the main arguments for carrying out denationalization through restitution as the fundamental method. The third and last part treats the two key elements of compensation as a second best solution. These elements set the ways in which the amount and types of compensation are determined and point to potential financial sources for compensating nationalized properties.
Comparative review of denationalization in countries in transition*
The ongoing implementation of the denationalization process in ex-socialist countries is facing serious difficulties resulting from the absence of appropriate legal regulations, problems by rightful owners or their heirs when submitting evidence of ownership, and the countries' limited fiscal capacity.** Still, because of the importance of the issue, the majority of them have come up with various solutions. Most of them have achieved considerable progress.
Albania regulated denationalization with two laws adopted in 1993. Former rightful owners were granted the right to either restitution of or compensation for non-agrarian land. In cases of already privatized property, the law introduces co-ownership between previous and new owners.
A significant portion of the land in Bulgaria was returned to original owners in Bulgaria upon the adoption of the Property Restoration Law of 1992 and the Compensation Act of 1993. Restitution of business offices in cities in 1992 yielded as much as 25,000 small and medium private businesses. Land, on the other hand, is being returned at a slower pace, partly due to high taxes for acquiring deeds. The number of applications for restitution of enterprises, land and apartments (nationalized during communism) in Estonia was more than 200,000 by April 1993. Half of the applications were decided upon by February 1994. The unresolved cases are slowing down the privatization process, particularly the privatization of apartments.
Out of the total of 300,000 applications for restitution of land (including urban areas) in Latvia, 70,000 have already been processed. In compliance with the 1990 Land Reform Act, the first phase of restitution and/or privatization set the right to use the land (more than half of the entire land has been transferred). The second phase, expected to clear out ownership rights, is being carried out more slowly as a result of inconsistent legal regulations.
March 1994 was the deadline for submitting applications by rightful owners of nationalized land in Lithuania. Around 86,000 applications were submitted.
The legal regulations for denationalization in Romania is at the draft law stage, and has already been passed by the Senate in June 1994. The lower house of Parliament is still to pass the proposed law so that it can come in effect and resolve over 250,000 cases.
* The presentation of comparative experiences in denationalization in countries in transition is given in accordance with the EBRD, Transition Report, London, 1994.
** cf. Economic Commission for Europe, Economic Survey of Europe in 1991-1992, pp. 200-201 (to be continued)