Two Albanian Minsiter spoke for more than one hour today at the Dutch
Parliament. Their speech was an update about the results in the fight
against crime and corruption, social protection and integration of
minorities, especially for the Roma community. The Ministers also spoke
about their efforts and results for guaranteeing basic rights, including
the media freedom and regional cooperation. This was part of Albania’s
effort to convince Hague that our country deserves the candidate status.
“If I was a critical journalist, for the criteria that you haven’t fulfilled, what would I write about”, asked Marit Maij, Parliament Member of the PVDA.
The Foreign Minister, Ditmir Bushati, gave a long answer for this: “We aren’t here to tell you that we have made visible progress, but you are not able to see this progress. We are not here to say that we are the perfect representatives, but we are trying to give the message that we are playing according to the rules. We are doing everything possible to approach our country to the European Union, in accordance with the enlargement regulation.
There are still many areas where progress is needed, and this is a truth even for Netherlands, Britain, the United States of America, Japan and every other country in the world. I believe that Albania could be considered a success story for what has been done from 2012 to 2013.
This political process needs to be recognized, because it was on top of the agenda, if we refer to the conclusions that the European Union council gave last year. There were two paragraphs for the elections, and they were considered as a key test for the European future of Albania. These developments cannot be overlooked. They need to be seen with tangible acts.
We have a situation when Croatia is an European Union member. Serbia and Kosovo gave a sign with the border agreement. Montenegro has started the negotiations and Serbia expects to sit very soon on the same table. We are fighting for the candidate status. We cannot take this as a gift, but we need this anchorage at the European Union, because it is key for the transforming agenda, as it is for the European Union.
When we talk about cooperation with neighbors for organized crime and corruption, what is taken as reference? It is not the region our reference, but chapters 23 and 24, and Croatia, because it has done what many other European Union countries failed to do… the so-called sanaderism of the society. We need to turn this perspective into an instrument, otherwise we could lose this run and the Eu might lose its magic and magnetic effect on the citizens.
We represent a country where more than 80% of the citizens have hopes on this process and support it. We are not looking for a free dinner for this, but we’re saying to make it Dutch. We play like the Dutch, but we stay to the rules that have been written by you for us, and for this we are grateful”, Bushati declared.
The Minister of Integration, Klajda Gjosha, mentioned during her meeting that everyone who was present received a file with the recent results of the government and parliament on sensitive case. The leader of the session promised that the information would be given to all colleagues before deciding for Albania at the Committee. The parties agreed to reinforce the cooperation between the two institutions of both countries, beyond the decision of December 17th.
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