Sequi on Top Story: Why EU rejected Albania

In an interview with Sokol Balla, the ambassador explained what made Albania fail and what changes in this year’s report, compared to that of 2010. He considered 2011 as an year that was wasted, putting the responsibility on the government and the non-cooperative opposition, while he also criticized the May 8th local elections as far from the standards. Sequi didn’t leave without mentioning the January 21st tragic events, considering them as responsible for this “veto” against Albania’s EU candidate status:

“Albania has a big potential, and its people deserve to make progress. But how? Albania submitted the membership request on 2009, and the first assessment request was made in 2010. There are 12 key priorities. In one year, it was not made possible the starting of the dialogue between parties. The new progress reports shows the concrete assessment and the way how your country must work in the future for delivering the 12 priorities.

The fact that some other countries of the region doesn’t mean that we’re using a double standard for Albania, but it means that these countries have made their homework and made more progresses. The report blames the “extreme polarization of the politics” and the stalemate caused by it as the main cause of this refusal.

The January 21st protests and the May 8th elections have further affected this polarization. The progress report says that although there was a calm election day, the in general was far from the standards. Albania  has not made progresses for delivering the key priorities, which are political: a functional parliament, a constructive dialogue among parties, passing laws that need qualified majority and that are connected with important issues, that of according the Albanian laws with the European ones; the impartiality of the state administration, transparence in hiring people in the state administration, strengthening the rule of law, the independence of the judicial system, the efficient implementation of the corruption strategy, removing immunity for political leaders and strengthening the war against organized crimes; all of these included in five priorities.”

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