Fule, this Wednesday in Tirana

Peter Stano, Spokesperson at the European Commission: The Commissioner will visit Tirana this Wednesday, this time for a high-rank dialogue. During the second round of this dialogue, in March, he declared that he would come in time for the third round, which will be held this Wednesday. I think that it is clear that the high-rank dialogue was held bu the Commission to help Albania, for treating EU membership challenges and encourage Albania’s chances to succeed. As you know, this month is decisive, due to the decision that is expected from the member countries about Albania. That’s why we are hoping for the best of Albania, and we are doing everything possible, including this dialogue, to make sure that Albania will deliver over its duties and expectancies.

Top Channel: This high-level dialogue deals with the priorities that are needed for opening the negotiations with the European Union, while for the candidate status, the Commission has prepared an evaluation report as the member countries had required. Will the Commissioner present this to the Albanian Authorities in Tirana?

Peter Stano: First of all, the report of the Commission, which is now in the approving procedure, has been prepared for the member countries, because they said in December that they took notice on our recommendation for granting the candidate status to Albania, but they will take a decision after the Commission prepares a report over the fight against organized crime and corruption, and reforms about the judiciary. We prepared this reform, which is under approval procedure and is expected to be approved soon. The report is for the member countries, so that they can decide later this month if Albania will receive the candidate status or not, and, after it will be approved, if the findings on the report are accepted and the report will be published, the Albanian partners will certainly be informed about this.

TCH: Since the Commissioner will meet with representatives of the civil society, do you plan meeting with interest groups that have shown discontent about the new government?

Peter Stano: Our goal for the high-rank level is to have an all-inclusive dialogue, which means that it will be with all interest groups. For this reason, the high-rank dialogue with the government will be with the participation of the opposition. On the other hand, the Commissioner makes sure to always meet the civil society representatives, so that he can learn from the reaction of non-government and non-party actors. The plan for this short visit is to meet with representatives from the government, the opposition, the Parliament leader and the civil society. The visit lasts a few hours, and focuses on the next round for high-rank dialogue. But this is not the only dialogue that the European Union leads. There are some forms of dialogue in different forms, and certainly, we should make sure that it will be represented in them and included in some way.

Prepared by: Arta TOZAJ / Top Channel

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