EC: Be cautious with the identity cards

06/04/2011 19:40

European Commission (EC) expressed its dissatisfaction on the unilateral declaration of the Albanian Integration Minister, Majlinda Bregu, after the second meeting for the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) implementation. She added that if there would be any identity card manipulation, Albania would risk not only the elections, but also the EU visa lifting.

This was the answer of Natasha Butler, Spokesperson for Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, when she was asked by Top-Channel to confirm the Albanian Minister declaration that quoted between quotation marks EC declarations, saying that the equipments for identity card verification are not indispensable for the election local commissions, since the Albanian government has already spent too much on the visa liberalization process.

“Yes, we are aware of the Integration Ministry press release on their official web page, regarding the SAA meeting held yesterday. The visa liberalization was also discussed and the Commission praised the Albanian authorities on the progress achieved last year, which was the reason that we implemented the visa liberalization. But the Commission indicated that the implementation of the other points of the guide that brought the visa liberalizations is equally important. If any identity card or biometric passport problem will be verified in the future, this could affect not only local elections, but also the visa lifting. This is the first answer of your question on identity cards and biometric passports”, Butler declared.

“Regarding local elections, the Albanian part made several comments and the Commission understood the fact that it would be very hard to equip all Albanian territory with instruments that can verify the identity cards just one month before elections. We also discussed other matters, but we are currently looking through the press release translation, that our Tirana offices provided us. We will ask clarification from the Albanian government on this press release that was published on the official web page”, she confirmed.

TCH: Do you agree with everything that is said on that press release, especially on the identity card verification equipments? What is your position on this meeting, because there has been no press release and this leaves room to speculations.

Butler: “As for the press release, we communicate regularly with the Albanian authorities, and you know that we will look through it very carefully. We were participants of that meeting and we would like the press release to be complete and show all the conclusions achieved at the end of the meeting. If we have been misinterpreted, we will see what we can do and we will ask a clarification or a replacement of the press release.

As for our assessment of the SAA Committee, we discussed many matters. I know that everyone is hungry, therefore I will be brief. According to the SAA implementation, especially on the tax reduction of imported goods, we praised the Albanian authorities and also indicated that they should work harder to fulfill the SAA requirements on intellectual property protection, because as we are speaking, the deadlines have expired.

As for the Roma case, we welcomed the efforts for new policies that would involve Roma community in the society. But at the same time we are still having discrimination against Roma people in Albania. There are few employment methods and few education possibilities. We repeated our concern for the violent eviction of the 45 Roma families, and we expect the Albanian authorities to continue with the investigations.

On the economic plan, we welcomed the progress on the fiscal reform and also on the monetary policies. But at the same time, we clearly indicated that more efforts are needed to improve the business climate and encourage investments. As for the macro-economic stability, Albania should do more to overcome the tendency of increasing debts in relation to the gross domestic product. I think that this is all I can say, Arta”.

TCH: You spoke about everything, except the discussions about the media or political matters. What is your position on the first and main criteria that took the biggest part of the meeting discussion?

Butler: As you know, during these annual meetings we discuss the EU-Albania relations as a whole. Certainly, about the political situation, we repeated what Commissioner Stefan Fule said in Tirana, at the seminar held in the presence of many important actors of the Albanian authorities, and also of the Parliament, including the opposition too. We repeated that it is important that the cooperation climate which was evident in the seminar, should lead to a greater and more stable cooperation. This could come with constant efforts by both government and opposition, because this could materialize a political agreement that would solve the current political stalemate. This was what we repeated and we hope that the Albanian authorities will follow the recommendation.”

Yesterday, the Albanian Commission in EU announced that there would be no press releases after the meeting. Minister Majlinda Bregu refused Top-Channel’s interview request, but she released declarations on other Medias, speaking on behalf of the EU about the meeting conclusions.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

Top Channel