Germany expects “big fish” brought to justice before accession negotiations

Without denying the progress achieved since November 2016, when the seven expected achievements for Albania were announced, the Germans say “big fish” should be brought to justice before the accession negotiations can be opened this June.

“Our opinion will depend on the developments of the weeks to come. We appreciate the first impacts of the vetting law, with people resigning from the system, but we expect more. As for the vetting law, corruption and organized crime, we have seen progress since the last time, but there are no concrete results for the big fish. The implementation of the key priorities is a key condition for the accession negotiations, and in Germany, this is up to the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament).

A big minus, according to Frei, is the fact that Saimir Tahiri’s immunity was not removed.

“I followed his case very closely and how it was treated from the political point of view. There is no reason why people should be protected politically. Everyone is equal before the law and it is not politics, but judiciary institutions who answer. This is a very important case to prove either Albania is ready to put these people on trial”, Frei continued.

Mr.Frei thinks that it is undeniable that the drug cultivation has been reduced, but the high levels of traffic are still problematic. He adds that it remains to be seen if the cultivation was really hit, or if there was an overproduction.

Besides the good results in the rule of law, Germany wishes the electoral reform to have passed by June, based on the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations, for a credible process next year.

The MPs of the CDU-CSU parliamentary group, the one of Chancellor Merkel, will return in May to reassess the situation.

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