The Director for Central and Southeastern Europe at the US State
Department, Jonathan Moore, declared in a discussion for Balkan in
Washington that the Albanian government and opposition need to cooperate
for the Euro-Atlantic integration process.
According to Voice of America, Moore declared that it was important that the political rotation in Albania was concluded correctly, and underlined that the current government, same as the past government, are committed for Albania’s European Union integration.
“It was important for the heads of both parties, the opposition and the government, to make it clear that they would respect the elections’ result, and that’s what happened, although a huge amount of energy was spent by speculating that votes would be stolen by each of the parties”, Moore declared.
This sends an important message not only for the United States, but also for the European Union. He added that the United States hope that the decision for the candidate status will be taken this year.
“There are many reasons for this, and many different opinions about why it is happening, who voted in favor and who voted against in the European Union. But the essence is that the government had just been in power, and it didn’t have enough time to do more, from mid-September to the time when the Council of Europe took the decision”, Moore declared.
Keeping in mind that the European Council will discuss this issue in June, Mr.Moore declared that in the months to come, the government and the opposition have the chance to cooperate for the issues that are related to the rule of law.
“Fighting corruption doesn’t mean that those who are in power today should complaint about those who were in power yesterday. Fighting corruption and consolidating the rule of law means raising charges by prosecutors whenever they have evidence for raising charges. It is not simply blaming the predecessor”, Moore declared.
He added that this should be done by raising the issues in legal institutions.
“Albania has many capable prosecutors and judges. They can deal with the cases that are given to them, but they should not be discussed only in the political arena”, declared the United States official.
Moore added that it takes time for the rule of law to get established, but he added that the first steps need to be taken. He mentioned Lazarat as a concern for the Albanian people and the international community, saying that the state needs to take all of its territory under control.
“An important point that was noted by the calm and democratic transition, is that the government is not the only one who plays a role here, but the opposition too. Finding ways to support the process not only by trying to guarantee the European Union support, for which they have done an effective job, but also for the cooperation methods”, Moore declared.
He noted that today’s government, when in opposition, has not always supported the steps that needed to be taken by the Parliament.
“The opposition has promised to support the necessary steps in Parliament. This needs to continue. The government needs to find a way to cooperate with the opposition, to reinforce the message, so that it will not be seen as a party against another. There is some time to do this, but not too much time. They need to act more quickly”, Moore underlined.
He emphasized that although the decision is completely up to the European Union, the United States of America are fully supportive.
“We agree with the European Parliament and other structures that Albania has deserved the candidate status, but we don’t have any say in this”.
Moore valued the progress of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. “Progress in this dialogue is bigger than what everyone else had thought”.
However, he says that there is still much to do for the details and the implementation of these agreements. He valued the local elections and expressed his hope for a good process in the Mitrovica area.
“It is important that the Northern Mitrovica elections and those held in all Kosovo communes, have been according to the legislation of Kosovo and not of any other country”.
Mr.Moore declared that the people of Kosovo should be proud for the successes reached so far, including the Stabilization-Association agreement, which, according to him, is getting Kosovo closer to the European Union.
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