EU Commissioner Hahn: “Start punishing corrupted politicians”

24/01/2017 00:00

Albania and other candidate countries for the EU accession must show
with concrete acts that they are implementing the justice reform, and
that politicians or other people vested with power, are being punished
when they are found involved with corruptive affairs.

The EU Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, referring to Albania too, said that simply passing the laws is not enough.

Hahn said that politicians need to undergo a full and transparent vetting of their assets, by new people who will be hired with the new justice system. In Albania, this process will be realized by the Vetting Law.

“The European Commission will not slow down the enlargement negotiations, but we need to have verified achievements which must show the functionality of democratic institutions, before chapters 23 and 24 are opened for negotiations, which include the justice reform, media freedom and human rights. The progresses will be published by Spring of 2019, and the time in between will be a test period for the candidate countries”, Hahn said.

The Commissioner mentioned Albania, where the intervention of the Venice Commission is necessary for the justice reform to not face anymore obstacles by parties that oppose it.

Hahn also spoke about the new unique policy that EU countries will implement to refuse in block the asylum requests coming from Western Balkan countries. Albania and all the other countries in the region will sign an agreement to have all asylum-seekers returned in block.

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