EU Commissioner Hahn responds to SMI Ministers
18/02/2017 00:00
The Washington Agreement Must Be Reactivated! 06/01 19:04
Johannes Hahn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, answered to
the concerns addressed to him by the Ministers of the Socialist Movement
for Integration (Justice Minister Petrit Vasili and Integration
Minister Klajda Gjosha), who said that the Management Board of the
International Monitoring Operation was against the Albanian
Constitution.
According to the Voice of America, Johannes Hahn sent a letter to Prime Minister Rama, expressing his surprise to these questions.
“The management board is not an organism above the IMO. It is a basic part of the IMO, to guarantee the administrative progress and the coordination between international actors involved with the IMO. This board will be part of discussions with competent and supervising authorities of the monitoring operation, for which the Management Board has appointed high-level professionals. ”, Hahn says in his letter.
In his letter, he adds “the questions of your government members raise doubts on the legitimacy of the IMO structures. This gives me the obligation to bring to attention that the engagement of the IMO is foreseen by Article B of the Constitutional Annex amended on July 2016. The Albanian Constitution foresees that the international observers need to be involved in IMO process, which should be led by the European Commission. The Albanian Constitution clearly states that ‘the IMO is expected to support the vetting process by monitoring and observing the entire process’, and that ‘it should be led by the European Commission’. In fact, the Board is being headed by a member of the European Commission. The Constitution of Albania also foresees that the IMO involved international partners, as part of the European integration and Euro-Atlantic integration. These partners are represented at the Board. The IMO must be the one appointing the observers. It is exactly the Constitution which makes sure that the IMO decides for these appointments”, Hahn specifies.
The Commissioner concludes his letter by underlining that the IMO plays a key role for the credibility of the entire process. “I believe that the government of Albania has the same approach to this process, and that it keeps supporting the efforts of the international community”.
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