By Mark Lowen - BBC Balkans corresponden
July 30, 2009
- _46135899_007597988-1.jpg (8.19 KiB) Viewed 5133 times
It is an unexpected move in a country that is still one of the most conservative in Europe and where homosexuality was illegal until 1995.
Mr Berisha acknowledged the proposed law might provoke debate but maintained that discrimination in modern Albania had to end.
The bill was drawn up by a group of non-governmental organisations.
It has been accepted by Mr Berisha's Democratic Party and will now come before parliament in the autumn.
In a predominantly Muslim country with almost no open homosexual community, the announcement by a conservative PM has taken people by surprise.
Goran Miletic, a Belgrade-based human rights lawyer, working partly on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues said it was an important step forward for the country.
"(It is) encouraging for the LGBT community in Albania, bearing in mind that they are not visible comparing to some other Balkan states like Serbia, like Macedonia or Croatia."
But he said he did not think the law would be passed easily in the face of immediate opposition from religious communities
The reaction by Islamic and Catholic leaders has been vehement.
Under the isolationist rule of Enver Hoxha, Albania was officially an atheist state.
But since the fall of Communism almost two decades ago, religion has once again grown and its leaders' voices are influential.
Albania, though, has set its sights firmly on the goal of European Union membership, and it seems this proposed law is aimed at showing Brussels a progressive new image.
If it is passed in the autumn, it could move the country one step further on its European path.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8177544.stm
