Opposition-majority clash in front of European MPs

The political climate of the past weeks was reflected in the eighth meeting of the Albania-EU Inter-Parliamentary meeting that started today in Tirana.

The opposition representative, MP Aldo Bumci, opposed the format presented at the meeting by saying that the opposition didn’t have enough time to express its concern.

The co-leader of this Committee declared that the opposition might express their concern through questions addressed to the government ministers.

However, Bumci insisted in his request and the debate went on for several minutes. The Democratic Party MP, Majlinda Bregu, raised again the old concerns of the opposition, the appointings in the administration.

“We have seen promises for reforms for more than one year and a half, but none of the priorities has been completed. We have not had the criteria for the public administration, the depoliticization and reformation of the administration. Only promises and no action”, Bregu declared.

The Minister of Integration, Klajda Gjosha, updated the representatives of the European Parliament with the main reforms undertaken by the government and the reforms foreseen for the future. She said that they have increased the efforts in the fights against corruption, while there is more cooperation with the EU countries,

The Minister of Integration, Klajda Gjosha, updated the representatives of the European Parliament delegation with the main reforms undertaken by the government and the reforms foreseen for the future. She said that the government has increased its efforts in the fight against terror while the cooperation with the EU and Europol in the fight against illegal activities has increased.

The Interior Minister, Saimir Tahiri, updated the European Parliament Members with the reforms undertaken by the government and the State Police during 2014. To forerun the lack of education among the police, the Academy turned into a higher education institution which prepares professional investigators. We passed a budget that supports the police with higher salaries, insurance, retirement pensions and basic investments in infrastructure and technology. We have concluded the most complete reform in the security sector”, Tahiri declared.

Tahiri mentioned the National Bureau f Investigation and its competences. He said that the task of this Bureau will be the investigation of special sectors in a specific way, including the criminal assets.

The Minister of Justice, Nasip Naco, focused on the Judiciary reforms.

“The President and the Minister of Justice organized a conference for the judiciary reform this October, which has support from all political sides. In October we held a meeting with judiciary experts. In November, the foreign missions expressed the need for reforming the judiciary, starting with the Supreme Court, the way how judges are appointed, and others. The Ministry of Justice has cooperated with all institutions and on December 2014, the Parliament passed for this a Special Committee for the judiciary reform”, Naco declared.

In the meeting of the Albanian and European Parliament Members there was the preliminary draft negotiated between Albania and the EU. It has 14 points in its final form, which are the recommendations that will be addressed to the Stabilization-Association Council of the EU.

The draft starts with a full support of the EU for the integrating path of Albania, as the only alternative for the future of the country. But it makes it clear that the opening of the negotiations is supported only by the speed through which Albania fulfills the key reforms.

The complete implementation of the December 24th agreement between the SP and the DP for the decriminalization is underlined in this draft as a critical necessity for all Parliamentary forces. As such is seen the political dialogue for the reforms that define the European path of Albania.

The draft specifies the concerns for the latest developments in our country, which are related to the criminal accusations made by the Albanian Parliament Members, and encourages a thorough and accelerated investigation that would prevent a further deterioration of the political situation.

The other points value the progress of the reforms

Decriminalization and the other point of the draft which encourages quick investigations from the Prosecution after the accusations of Tom Doshi will be used by the opposition to articulate their stance as regards the resignation of Ilir Meta.

Sources from the DP headquarters say that this will be underlined by MP Aldo Bumci in the opening of the meeting between the EU and Albania. What remains to be seen is if this case, which has turned into a cause by the opposition, will be used as the next disagreement between the political forces that might cause the meeting to conclude without a joint resolution.

Sources from the majority confirm that they will underline the opening of the negotiations, since Albania at the European Commission has expressed even before the need for deciding the time when there will be progress with this phase, at least with the receiving of the recommendation, which the Albanian government sees as a process that would help accelerating the reforms.

Due to the meeting of March 24th in Tirana, the high-level meeting between the EU and Albania, the government believes that they should take advantage of this time to decide the steps that would bring the recommendation for opening the negotiations.

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