“Committed for accession talks”

In a joint declaration for the media, the head of the Albanian government reserved the euphoric tones for this good news from Brussels, saying that “it is not the case to talk about victories or massive meetings, but we must work hard to fulfill the conditions set by the European Commission”.
 
“Certainly that today’s news is encouraging, but the time of boasting and government fanfares ended on June 23rd. The proposition for the status has come and it is now clear that the elections were de facto the condition that wasn’t completed last December. For the first time the progress-report talksabout a real possibility of opening  accession talks within next year, if the main conditions are completed and we are 100% committed to this”, Rama declared.

The Prime Minister valued the contribution of the former governments in the integration processes of our country, and commented what has been written in this report for the normative act of the civil service.

“This years-long process has been for every country longer than the histories of governments. But today there is a difference. Different from the former government, we will not blame the opposition so that we can divide the people in good and bad ones. The normative act will be presented at the Albanian Parliament this Thursday and what is written on the report about this can be considered a reference point for the opposition, so that they can be present at the voting”, Rama declared.

Ambassador Sequi explained what this recommendation means for Albania:
“The European Commission reached the conclusion that Albania has progressed in its European path, especially by passing the measures that have been identified as essential for the candidate status, by continuing to give results in the reforms that are necessary for completing the priorities deriving from the European Commission Opinin of 2010. Based on the progress reached so far, the European Commission recommends the Candidate Status for Albania, with the understanding that it will keep taking measures and actions in the fight against organized crime”, Sequi declared.

Same as in the past years, Ambassador Sequi has symbolically passed the progress report to the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani; the Parliament Speaker, Ilir Meta, and the Foreign Minister, Ditmir Bushati. The EU chief diplomat in Tirana visited the opposition’s headquarters, where he discussed with the DP leader, Lulzim Basha, about the progress-report.

“The progress-report is a real evaluation of the achievements of the past government. The June 23rd elections were organized well by the government, although the opposition was boycotting the Parliament. Today is a happy day for the entire Albanian people. The current government is invited to celebrate, although they didn’t fulfill their duties. The DP promises to do everything possible for opening the accession negotiations”, Basha declared.

Sequi “translates” report: Achievements and obligations

The European Ambassador in Tirana, Ettore Sequi, explained in a press conference the achievements and the main duties that Albania has to realize.

“Fight against corruption and organized crime is an indispensable condition, not only for the status, but also for the day when Albania will become a member with full rights”, Sequi explained.

“In the political aspect, Albania has made important progress. The government and the opposition have cooperated for a series of important laws for the country. Important steps have been taken in the judiciary, measures for preventing corruption have been taken, narcotic substances and criminal assets have been seized”.

“The political dialogue must keep progressing, same as the independence of the judiciary and the Prosecution”, Sequi declared.

“The administration reforms must continue, same as in the human rights area, especially with the treatment of the Roma people”.

As for the economic criteria, the ambassador admitted that “economy remains weak and vulnerable to the internal structural weaknesses and the global economic destablization. However, the GDP has increased mainly due to exports, but unemployment remains high. More measures should be taken, besides employment, even for the high debt and bad loans”.

As regards the legislation, “Albania should improve the laws of copyright, taxes, environment and climatic changes”.

Sequi declared that the work for consolidating the results should continue even in December, when the Council of Ministers of the European Council will review the recommendation of the Commission for giving the candidate status to Albania.

The Ambassador also made an appeal to politics, saying that all inclusiveness should be a constant element of the Albanian politics.

Berisha: We deserved status earliers

After the European Commission published the report, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha reacted on his Facebook profile, saying that Albania has deserved and fully deserves the candidate status.

“This is a completely deserved recommendation. With the reforms that have been realized during these years by the DP majority, democracy and the market economy in Albania have become more functional.

 The candidate status that was recommended by the European Commission in October 2012, with the only condition to vote the three laws in Parliament, for which consensus had been reached in the beginning of 2012, was withheld by Edi Rama. He refused to vote these laws, only to block the status.

Naturally, for blocking the status Rama was helped by albanophobes and non-Albanians in Brussels and other European countries. The laws were voted with consensus on May 30th, and tomorrow, with the voting of the normative act, Rama will eliminate the consensus of May 30th, in a new anti-Albanian effort to postpone the status even more, so that it is not recognized as a merit of the DP. Integration is vital for Albania.

It is not a process without difficulties, but the first and most important difficulty for the Albanian people was Rama, whom is not trusted by anyone in Brussels and Europe for the integration.

Rama is not trusted, not because he is prejudiced, but because in the European memory he is the only politician in the continent who did everything possible to block the Stabilization Association Agreement (he used whistles in Parliament), opening the process for the status (boycotted parliament), the visa regime lift (organized the hunger strike), and the recommendation for the candidate status (refused to vote the three laws that the European Commission demanded as a condition)”, Berisha writes.

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