Klotilda Bushka

Sigurimi files in an exhibition in Tirana. Photo: LSA.

MPs from the governing Socialist Party on Monday decided to postpone approval of changes in two laws intended to ban people from running for parliament who collaborated with the Communist-era Sigurimi secret service after an intervention by the EU's ambassador to Tirana.

Ulsi Manja (left) and Klotilda Bushka (right) at the parliamentary law committee hearing on Friday. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

"Civil society organisations call upon the government to withdraw the proposed laws. If the government refuses to do so, we also call upon the parliament of Albania to reject these laws at once," the statement said.