The European Parliament discussed today in Strasbourg the annual
progress-report for the nine member countries that are monitored for EU
accession, with Albania among them.
The resolution approved by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe underlines that the recent Constitutional amends have made way for a thorough and all-inclusive reform of the Albanian judiciary system, which helps guarantee independence from political influences.
Rapporteurs Andrej Hunko and Joseph O’Reilly noted that the main conditions for the EU accession negotiations remain the implementation of the justice reform, especially the Vetting law, on all Albanian judges and prosecutors.
“The tense political climate is still present in Albania. It is important to reach consensus with all political Justice Reform factors, in order to find solutions to problems that were noted during in the past elections, based on the Venice Commission recommendations and the National Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Knowing the traditional Albanian problems after elections, especially with the ballot count process, Andrej Hunko and Joseph O’Reilly underlined that changes expected in the Albanian electoral code are not enough. Political factors need to commit to implement the Electoral Code and hold true democratic elections.
The most important part of the report for Albania is focused on the decriminalization law. The Council of Europe wants to create conditions for a final solution of all property issues, for a professional media, not affected by politics.
As long as there are no tangible results and without political consensus for the reforms, Albania will remain on the monitoring list, together with Aremania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldavia, Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine.
Top Channel
