In an interview for Deutsche Welle, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, spoke about his Western Balkan tour and differences between candidate countries, as regards the accession perspective.
Juncker insists that no concrete date can be offered for any of the candidate countries and that everything depends on the “homework” for each of these countries.
Juncker admits that Serbia and Montenegro are one step ahead of Albania and other countries in the region.
“Serbs have been negotiating for some time and they have progressed more in comparison to Albanians, who have not started the accession negotiations yet. Everything depends on the substance, not on calendar dates. I am interested on the deadlines, but we should not forget the essential because of them. They understood this in Macedonia, and in Albania a bit less, because Albania has not started the accession negotiations yet”, Juncker said.
As for the recommendations that will be issued in April, the President of the European Commission said that he has reserves.
“I cannot foresee how these recommendations will be because we need essential progress. We need to verify until April if there will be enough substantial progress”, he declared.
Juncker spoke about the sectors that need more focus, in order for Albania to progress.
“The rule of law, media freedom, judicial reforms, fight against money laundering and organized crime need more focus. We discussed these problems in Albania as well. We need more progress there because there are problems with the organized crime within the country, which is exported abroad”, said the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
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