Preparatory meeting in Brussels

Besides the fulfilled criteria, based on the progress report of October 10th, they underlined the challenging areas for the country.

“Many important achievements in this period were identified by the European Commission in the annual progress report for Albania, but we are aware that there is still much work to be done. The reforms in the judiciary, the war against corruption and the organized crime are the most challenging reforms”, declared Mimoza Halimi, ambassador of Albania at the EU.

Vassilis Maragos, head of the Unit for Albania at the Enlargement Directory of the European Commission declared: “A very important element that will be taken in consideration is the continuity of the efforts and results reached by Albania in the war against corruption and organized crime and the rule of law. A number of tangible accomplishments were achieved in this area, but there is still too much to be done, especially as regards the pro-active investigations and punishments”.

The economic situation was discussed based on the data of the report progress of the Commission.

The documents of the preparatory meeting included a complaint from the Union Federation of Industrial Workers for political an financial pressures of the Albanian government to the CEZ Distribution company.

For Ambassador Halimi, “the Albanian economy has experienced only modest economic decrease, from 7.5% that it was in 2008, to 3.1% in 2009, and has preserved the bank stability thanks to modern policies, such as a welcoming climate for business, a healthy policy of monitoring and careful macro-economic actions”.

Vassilis Maragos, head of the unit for Albania at the Enlargement Directory of the European Commission, showed another image of this situation: “There is a number of elements that should be taken in consideration, mainly those that are related with the macro-economic situation, the public debt, and also the deficit, which should be taken under control, but also the structural reforms, the administrative reforms and the improvement of the business climate.

As it has happened recently, with an decreasing interest on the meetings of the European Parliament for Albania, in the preparatory meeting was present only one European MP, besides Kukan, who showed interest about the elections and corruption based on the recent data from TIA.

Prepared by: Arta TOZAJ, Brussels

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