The Foreign Minister of Latvia presented in front of the Foreign
Committee of the European Parliament the priorities of the European
Union enlargement for the next six months.
The Riga representative underlined that Albania must give results in key priorities before starting the accession process. They expressed their ambitions for opening the first chapter of negotiations with Serbia, if there will be visible progress in the rule of law, and if the agreement with Kosovo will be implemented. Kosovo might sign the Association Stabilization Agreement within the first half of 2015. While for Montenegro are promised new negotiating chapters.
Nothing new has been mentioned for Bosnia, while there is a lack of unanimity from the European Union council for Macedonia.
“Albania deserved the candidate status during the past year, and also a recognition of their work for the EU integration. We welcome this process, but there are more challenges ahead before the negotiations can start”, declared Edgars Rinkevics, Foreign Minister of Latvia.
“The project is ambitious, but difficult to be implemented”, declared the Slovakian MP, Eduard Kukan.
He said that to be more successful, the Minsiter of Latvia should hold close contacts with the High Representative, the diplomatic services and the representatives of the member countries of the region.
The Romanian European MP, Bostinaru, insisted on the possibility of opening chapters of accession with Albania, based on the last positive news. But because many European MPs asked the Presidency about Russia, a topic that is closed for the public, the session continued behind closed doors, including only Russian diplomats.
The Latvian Minister informed about the results of the EU Council on terrorism, the sanctions against Russia, the visa liberalization with some neighboring countries, the stalemate with Turkey.
For Albania, he corrected the MP of the left wing about the enlargement process, reiterating that more results are needed in several sectors before giving a positive recommendation from the Commission for starting the accession talks.
The priorities of the new European Union Presidency were heard after the respective reports for Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, while the report for Albania will be discussed this spring.
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