The meeting between the Albanian PM, Edi Rama, and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, on the Independence Day of Albania, served to clarify the
position that the European Council will hold on December 15th. Merkel
did not express any stance directly, but her positive evaluation on
Albania’s progress was clear.
“The European Commission wants Albania’s development to be constant. The progress made by Albania were mentioned in the progress report. I want to congratulate PM Rama for these advances”, Merkel said.
But does this mean a “yes” in December? Diplomatic sources confirmed for Top Channel that Germany is ready to support the recommendation of the European Commission for opening the negotiations for Albania’s accession, once the vetting law and justice reforms are implemente.
“Certainly, now it is important to continue in this direction. For this reason, the European Commission is creating five priorities, including the implementation of the Justice Reform. This will include fight against organized crime and corruption. In this context, the agenda always has permanent measures and this was also mentioned by the European Commission. Certainly, with election being in the focus. Albania will have a close coordination with the OSCE too”, Merkel said.
Same sources confirmed that the Council will ask the European Commission a report for the implementation of the vetting law. This was the key word of PM Rama’s speech during the joint press release with Chancellor Merkel, to whom he said that he is coming to Berlin with the kept promise of the justice reform.
Convinced that the five priorities will keep being Albania’s guide even after the negotiations, PM Rama had a specific request about how the accession negotiation process should be: it should be fair and predictable.
“Albania deserves from the EU the same loyalty we have expressed to the EU with our foreign policy, 100% according to the EU decisions”, Rama said.
Top Channel sources said that during the meeting between both delegations, Chancellor Merkel guaranteed for Germany’s support to the European Commission report in December, and excluded the creation of new conditions for opening the negotiations.
The only condition from the seven ones mentioned by Krichbaum, remains the implementation of the Vetting Law, which was clearly expressed on the European Commission.
Top Channel
