EU: Albania doesn’t deserve status

In the Enlargement Strategy, which is expected to be published this October, the Commission is being formal by assessing that Albania will deserve the candidate status only after fulfilling the conditions. The evaluation will start with the political developments.

“The Albanian political scene was widely dominated by a political stalemate and consequent confrontations. The violent clashes of antigovernment protesters with the police caused the death of four people, which amplified the distrust between the political forces and some state institutions. The May 8th local elections, although valued as competitive and transparent, were marked by many irregularities that need to be addressed to. Especially the ballot count controversy for the Tirana Mayor elections, which increased the polarization between the government and the opposition”.

Right after these events, the Commission recommended the way these two political forces should follow.

“It is urgent for the Albanian political forces to establish and keep a political dialogue level that would enable the right functionality of the key democratic institutions, especially the Parliament, and the progress for the EU integration. The complete return of the Socialist Party in Parliament is a promising step that should contribute for this purpose. The significant irregularities that were identified in the last two elections show the necessity for a complete electoral reform, which would benefit a lot from impartial foreign advises.

The two political parties were committed for the EU offer, to engage in a constructive manner towards the EU priorities. The last inter-partial agreement for a motion-resolution over the EU integration in the Parliament is a welcomed and significant development. It is essential for the political parties in Albania to engage on a stable and structured process for working together on the EU integration, which would involve a process for a joint review and approval of the action plan needed for addressing to the recommendations of the Opinion, and on a program for the essential reforms, including the Parliamentary performance and the elections”.

After the evaluation for the Albanian political class, the Commission lists the reasons why the country doesn’t deserve the candidate status and the opening of the EU membership negotiations.

“In general, Albania has made limited progresses for achieving the political criteria for the membership and the 12 key priorities for opening the membership negotiations, as identified in the Opinion of the Commission that was approved by the Council this December. There has been some kind of progress against the organized crime, by improving the way how prisoners are treated and children rights, but progress remains insufficient regarding the judicial system, anticorruption policies, property rights and the conditions of the Roma community, problems that are added to the Parliament functionality and elections. Albania has started to implement the action plan towards the recommendations of the Commission’s Opinion. However, further efforts are needed for guaranteeing the effectiveness and fulfillment of these actions, including a close cooperation with the opposition. Albania should make stable efforts and reach visible progress in all these matters, before the Commission could recommend a candidate status and opening the EU membership negotiations.”

A positive step is the smooth implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement and the satisfying achievements during the dialogue for the visa liberalization, which lifted the visa regime on December 2010. The government was informed about the next Commission’s evaluations. EU Confidential sources declared for Top Channel that the Integration Minister, Majlinda Bregu, traveled to Brussels for an information visit and asked the Commission to clearly blame the opposition for boycotting the integration process. The Commission’s answer for this special request, according to the same sources, was that for voting laws of political importance, and not technical, it is natural that the opposition will expect cooperation signals by the ruling majority, starting with the amends for the Parliament Regulation. Besides informing about this meeting, the EU confidential document, secured by Top-Channel a few weeks before the European Commission announces the Opinion, is part of the Enlargement strategy. The Commission is summarizing the developments in Albania for reporting it to the member countries. The full and detailed progress report on Albania is expected to be made public on October 12th, after the decisions that will be taken by the College of Commissioners for the language that should be used and the possible changes until the final version of the respective reports for each EU aspiring country.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

Top Channel