TIRANA, March 7 – Albanian President Ilir Meta is still mulling whether he wants to give permission to the government to sign a deal with Greece over the shared maritime border.
Meta held this week separate meetings with Prime Minister Edi Rama and members of the Foreign Parliamentary Committee to discuss talks on the maritime border agreement with Greece.
There was no public information issued about the meeting with Rama, but there were several statements on the meeting with the MPs.
Lawmakers of all parties represented expressed their agreement that the process should take place according to the Constitutional Court’s definitions.
The Democratic Party representatives once again defended its idea that the best solution would be for the parties to turn to the International Court of Arbitration.
After a little more than 90 minutes, members of the Foreign Commission came out of the meeting with President Meta.
The head of state said in a brief statement that he “informed the MPs with his position on this issue, underlining that for the achievement of a just and stable agreement, cooperation and seriousness are required from all institutions and … the importance of relations and good neighborliness with Greece.”
Socialist MP Mimi Kodheli shared the same view of the importance of relations with Athens.
“The pillars of the discussion were: the agreement should not fail, the agreement should be done as soon as possible for the benefit of Albania and Albanians, but also for the benefit of the region, in order to determine the delimitation lines not only of Albania with Greece but of all the countries of the Western Balkans,” she said.
Kodheli hinted the agreement was needed for Albania’s EU bid to progress.
“Let us not forget that Greece is a neighboring country, and it is in our interest to have a good relationship and not to have open issues, much more today when it comes to the postponement of the Enlargement Strategy, the relationship with the neighbors and the solution of all the issues carried forward is our duty until the full EU membership of Albania,” Kodheli added.
Democratic MP Tritan Shehu said the president had expressed concern about violations of the constitutionality of the process, according to him, lack of transparency, the methodology of the process and the composition of the negotiating team.
According to Shehu, for the Democratic Party, “the rational solution of this issue, the achievement of a fair agreement on all sides and stability, the avoidance of any misunderstanding, any lack of transparency, or other elements related to professionalism, is undoubtedly sending of this file, in agreement with the Greek side, at the international court in The Hague, to then welcome its verdict acceptable to us.”
The meeting of the commission with the president came after a hearing with Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati.
The process has being accompanied by controversy and some tension between the Foreign Ministry and the Presidency. The head of state has repeatedly asked for additional information from the Foreign Ministry regarding a request for the head of state to authorize the ministry to deal the deal.
All sides want to avoid having the agreement nullified by the Constitutional Court as it was done with the previous 2009 agreement.
