TIRANA, April 17 – The European Commission published its progress report on Western Balkan states on Tuesday, in which it unconditionally recommended the EU Council opens accession negotiations with Albania and Macedonia.
The report stated for Albania that preserving and further deepening reforms that comply with the rule of law in all five key priorities presented by the EU and continuously delivering concrete results in the reevaluation of judges and prosecutors will be decisive for Albania’s EU journey.
“To support this, the Commission will apply a reinforced approach on the negotiation chapters related to the judiciary, basic rights and justice, the country’s freedom and security,” the report noted.
In addition, the report made positive remarks on the reform of the public administration, calling it consolidated and “with a view to enhancing its professionalism and depoliticization” and noted the government took actions to strengthen judicial institutions by applying an all-inclusive reform.
“This includes the first tangible results in reevaluating all judges and prosecutors, the resignation of 15 high level judges and prosecutors, and the first hearings that led to the dismissal of a Constitutional Court judge, as well as the approval of another Constitutional Court judge’s duty.”
Concerning the issue of corruption and organized crime, the EC said notable proactive and solid efforts contributed in the investigation, arrest and punishment of criminals and gave results in fight against cultivation and trafficking of cannabis.
“Further measures were taken to effectively guarantee human rights, including rights of people belonging to minorities and the Roma community, as well as anti-discriminatory policies and implementation of property rights,” the report on Albania’s progress noted.
The report highlighted the country’s progress and setbacks in all the key points put forward by the EC in 2016, when the recommendation for Albania was conditional.
Concerning the political situation in the country, the report said it continues to be deeply polarized, particularly mentioning the Democratic Party’s (DP) attempted 2017 elections’ boycott that led to the prolonged establishment of the independent judicial bodies that would reinforce the judicial reform.
It also mentioned that despite the eventual agreement between DP’s Lulzim Basha and Prime Minister Edi Rama, which led to the “unproblematic organization of general elections in 2017, a number of OSBE/ODIHR recommendations remain unfulfilled.”
Even though the application of the judiciary reform was mainly described on a positive light, the report did not fail to mention the overwhelming majority of vetted figures only belong to the judiciary and prosecution.
“Punishment of high level officials mainly happens in the judiciary; however, the punishment scale of high officials generally remains very low. Corruption continues to prevails in many fields and remains a serious problem,” the report’s authors wrote.
In the same context, concerning the fights against organized crime, the EC said Albania should engage in fully getting rid of its cannabis stock and confiscating criminals’ wealth effectively.
“There was little progress in the destruction of organized criminal rings. The number of ultimate punishments for organized crime cases remains low, and has only increased slightly. More efforts are needed to address money laundering, criminal wealth and unjustified assets,” according to the report.
Although the EC said the cooperation between Albanian and EU states’ police has effectively intensified and resulted in overall success, the number of unjustified asylum requests coming from Albania remains high.
“Albania has approved a number of measures, including the strengthening of two-sided cooperation with EU axis states. These measures have given positive results. The established measures should further continue in the context of post visa-liberalization monitoring mechanism in order to effectively face the phenomenon.”
Jubilant mood in Albania
Prime Minister Edi Rama called the EC’s unconditional recommendation regarding Albania “a new chapter in the country’s history.”
After receiving a copy of the report by EU Ambassador to Tirana Romana Vlahutin, Rama told local media Albania passed a historical challenge both as a state and as a people.
“We were recommended, without any conditions, by the European Commission, as a state that can and should sit at the negotiations table, in order to enter the family of Europe’s united nations.”
Rama added this decision gives Albania a new position in the international arena, assisting it to leave the crossroad between the past and the future.
“It is now clear that the road beyond the crossroads we found ourselves in so far is open, despite its difficulty and length — it is wide open for all of us,” Rama said.
Despite the victorious tone, Rama also said the EC’s recommendation is not the end of Albania’s battles, or the end of dealing with issues such as corruption and crime, but rather the beginning of an even harder era of reforms and further fights against crime and corruption.
President Ilir Meta said the progress report is in harmony with the EU’s enlargement strategy that aimed to seriously engage the EU in the Western Balkans.
“This is an encouraging, long-awaited and strategic act that concerns the country’s European future,” Meta said.
Member states have reservations
A number of EU member state leaders have so far expressed reservations on EU’s enlargement wave, weakening the country’s aspirations for negotiations fully open by July.
The most notable among them have been France’s Emmanuel Macron, the Netherlands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias.
According to Macron, the EU should not expand before fixing its own internal policies and making sure all its member states are aligned with the same democratic core values and perspectives.
Similarly, Blok said in Strasburg on Saturday that the Netherlands is still not convinced with Albania’s progress in fighting off corruption, and that, according to him, more tangible results should be delivered.
Kotzias, on the other hand, in a short interview with media after the European Council’s meetings, mentioned the Maritime Agreement and other open-ended matters between the neighboring countries as decisive in Greece’s approval of Albania’s negotiation talks.
President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on the other hand said the possibility of a war similar to the one that erupted in the Balkans in the 90s is a possibility if the region is not given a European perspective soon.
“I don’t want to witness the return of the Balkan wars, so we have to open up to them,” Juncker said in front of the Council.
He also said he would not want the Balkans to turn to Turkey or Russia, in the context of the growing geopolitical factors’ influence in the EU’s foreign agenda.
