Fleckenstein: “Judiciary reform and elections, key for EU accession negotiations”

22/02/2017 00:00

“Elections and implementation of the judiciary reform are key for starting EU accession negotiations with Albania.”

The rapporteur and Member of the European Parliament, Knut Fleckenstein, said for the media that he asked the European Council to start the negotiations as soon as possible, and that everything must be credible.

“Almost every European Parliamentary group, except for the extreme right wing, have spoken about these things and didn’t hide the fact that there is still a lot of work to do. We appealed the Council to open negotiations if the elections in Albania go well, and if the implementation of the reform continues. If these conditions are fulfilled, the negotiation should start as soon as possible, so that everyone is more credible”, Fleckenstein said.

He added that he doesn’t want to comment the Democratic Party protest, which is an internal matter of Albania, but he asked the opposition Parliament Members to return to Parliament. “And this is not just the opinion of Fleckenstein, but also of Kukan, Commissioner Hahn, Mrs.Mogherini, etc”, Fleckenstein said.

He also spoke about the confrontation between US Ambassador Donald Lu and Chief Prosecutor, Llalla, saying that everyone is fighting for the same objective: “We are fighting for the same objective. Sometimes there are misunderstandings, but this is not a personal fight of Donald, Romana or Knut. We are together and we represent the institutions of the EU and USA”, he said.

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