Today, Albania’s next EU test

14/06/2011 09:10

EU deputies will meet for the third time with their Albanian homologues
in Brussels, but this inter-parliamentarian meeting will be held behind
closed doors, for the first time since its creation, after the enactment
of Stabilization Association Agreement.

According to SAA, EU legal representatives and the Albanian Parliament members must have regular informative talks on the country’s progress for fulfilling EU integration.

The schedule informs that Minister of Integration and Commissioner Fule will be the ones to open the dialogue.

The first discussion will be about the work that has been done up to now by Albanian authorities for fulfilling the 12 key priorities that assigned by the EU Commission last November. Afterwards, the debate will be focused on the political situation, including the functionality of the Parliament and the dialogue between parties.
The latest economic development in Albania, the protection of human rights and freedom of media are on top of the discussion lists, before talking about May 8th local elections.

After discussing these points, the representatives of the Albanian and European Parliaments will conclude the meeting with a joint declaration, which until today has never been achieved, due to the disagreements between Socialist and Democratic deputies on the technical terms of this conclusive declaration.

The documents that the EU deputies will have in their disposal are the Opinion of the Commission on Albania’s Application for the Candidate Status, the report of Amnesty International about Albania, published on May 2011, the Quarter Report of the Commission about the Albanian Economy, the Intermediate Pre-election report of OSCE-ODIHR on local elections. For making the EU stance clearer, aiming to achieve the consensual agreement by the end of the third interparliamentary meeting, Brussels changed its strategy this time by being less transparent with the public.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

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