Progress-report, Arvizu: Dissapointing result

Top Channel: Ambassador Arvizu, it seems that you have visited Brussels to have a closer look to the progress report. There are no surprises. Albania failed to receive the candidate status for the second consequent year. You have been very active in some important events during this year. Can you mention some of the reasons that brought this unfortunate result?

US Ambassador Arvizu: Well, you’re right, it is unfortunate. Certainly, it was no surprise, but for anyone who cares about Albania, this was a disappointing outcome that Albania did not obtain the member candidate status this time around. But the important thing is to understand that this is an evolving process, it is important to take a little bit of a deep breath and try to assess the best way to move forward. But as far as the reasons why, I think that Chairman Fule as well as the Ambassador Sequi made it very clear yesterday. There are a number of reasons, some of them technical, that I think that an overriding concern was the lack of demonstrable progress in the so called political agenda, the Copenhagen criteria.

Top Channel: We have a progress report from the EU, but not from the USA, since we aspire to be part of the European Union. But if something like that would exist, let’s say something more official than Wikileaks, would it be different to that of the EU? What would that report say about the independent institutions, corruption, administration, media freedom?

US Ambassador Arvizu: We are fully supportive of Albania’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions, in fact we are supportive of all Balkan countries becoming full members of the European Community Family. However, in response to your question about the criteria of the assessment, based on what I saw, our assessment would mirror the European Union’s assessment, the concerns that they identified on the rule of law and other administrative technical aspects. Certainly, we agree with those.

Top Channel: Do you think that the rhetoric used by the majority during this period is correct?

US Ambassador Arvizu: To be very frank, I think that there are two parties responsible for the stalemate. One is the Democratic Party of Albania and the other is the Socialist Party of Albania. I think that both share responsibility for that, but the important thing is what the ambassador Sequi noted yesterday in his press conference. I think it will be constructive for the reform agenda, for people to recognize that this really is an opportunity. It is tempting, of course, to focus on the negative aspect and try to sign blame, and this will probably continue in the news cycles, but hopefully, in a couple of days time it will be a time for both sides to assess that this isn’t really in the interest of the country. The Albanian people and the Albanian nation deserve to be considered as a serious candidate for the EU member status, and is really a competence of the politicians to find a way to move this forward. Another point I would make is that I’ve had some interesting conversations with Albanians about this. I’m a little bit concerned, because there seems to be a sense in Tirana that if only this political stalemate can be resolved and both sides would agree, yes, we would want Albania to move forward with the agenda, and then all that we’ll have to do is to sign an application form and Albania is in the EU. Of course it is not the case at all. The accession in the EU is a very difficult and time consuming process. There are a lot of technical details and agreements, the harmonization of standards. But this is the difficult part. The political will is supposed to be the easy part, and in the Albanian contest we all have recognized that that’s a difficult step. So, I’m not minimizing that step, but I’m saying that there’s a lot of work to be done, and there’s a lot of time that was wasted in the past two years. In my view, both sides share responsibility for that and both sides share responsibility to move the agenda forward.

Top Channel: What are you ready to do to help both sides bring Albania on the right track?

US Ambassador Arvizu: It’s no secret that there is a deep divide. I call it a trust gap between the two parties, and I think that that trust gap exists with a lot of supporters too. The country in many ways is divided in these two camps. The two sides need to come up with ways to address to this mistrust. And again, my humble opinion is that it is easy to blame the other side. If party A is criticizing, they’re probably right for the other side, but they need to think about themselves too. There needs to be a way to address this trust gap. As I’ve said before, again, in my humble view, I think that the majority has the responsibility to try to do anything that it can to create circumstances and situations in the Parliament, in the country as a whole, to create an environment that is more conducive for dialogue. I think that the fact that they are in the government, that they control the government, that puts more responsibility on the ruling party, to figure out a way and come up with a concrete reform proposals that can be given serious consideration by the opposition. By the same token, as they say, it takes two to tango. The opposition needs to also be willing to do its part to address the trust gap. The majority can’t do it alone. The majority should not be ramrodding through its proposals, just because it has a 71 to 68 majority, or something like that. I don’t think that addresses the interests of the country. But the opposition needs to look within itself and needs to look at its supporters also, and come up with a way to show the country that it is a serious political player also.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

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