EP: Fight corruption

After meeting the Albanian President, Prime Minister Rama, the Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta and the opposition leader, Lulzim Basha, the delegation gathered in the first meeting of the joint committee to discuss a series of issues that Albania has as conditions for integration, with corruption being on the top.

Representatives of the majority and opposition have been together in declaring that Albania deserves the status in December, but even in this meeting they have still been accusing each other.

This time it was the Democratic Party that accused the government for a series of arbitrary actions, according to them, such as the normative act for the budget, the administration dismissals and even reforms at the police.

“I am raising with concern this unacceptable situation, created by illegal acts that go against the rule of law, and by arbitrary decisions. The Democratic Party has filed a criminal suit against the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister. I hope that the Prime Minister will support these reports same as he did with the investigation of Shpetim Gjika”, declared Majlinda Bregu, chairwoman of the Commission for Integration.

“The police started an action for stopping criminal elements, while the elements within the police were informing the criminals. The actions taken so far by the police have shown that the State Police has incriminated elements, a problem that needs to be addressed”, declared Taulant Balla.

The mutual accusations brought the reaction of the European Parliament representatives. “Such discussions, by accusing each other for two hours, are not helping you. It is not your discussion what convinces the European Union that you are fighting corruption. The fight against corruption should not be to convince the European Union. This is not important. It is not important to convince anyone. You will not be able to function according to the European Union laws in this level of corruption. You simply will not be able to function as a state, and this is the issue. Accusing each other is completely inappropriate and I don’t know why you do it so often”, declared Nikola Vuljanovic.

By encouraging the new government to continue the fight against organized crime and corruption, the European Union ambassador, Ettore Sequi, and the European Parliament Member, Tanya Fayon, declared that the status is possible this December for Albania, and deserved after the achieved progress.

The same message was given by the head of the EP delegation, Eduart Kukan, a guest of honor at the Diplomatic Academy at the Foreign Ministry.

“Albania deserves the candidate status this December, but your country must transmit trust for the progress in Brussels, and political comprehension. The status does not require only the commitment of the Foreign Ministry, but tangible actions against corruption and crime, so that even skeptics can be convinced”, Kukan declared.

The conclusions of the European Union-Albania meeting will be made this Tuesday afternoon, before the decision of the European Council for the candidate status on December.

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