Immediately after the 11th meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council between the EU and Albania, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission Borrell, Prime Minister Rama and the Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Várhelyi, held a joint conference where they discussed about the Council meeting and other issues.
The first to open the conference was Borrell, who acknowledged that there is still no date regarding the intergovernmental conference. “There is not yet a date for the intergovernmental conference. We have expressed our wish that this conference could take place as soon as possible […] Some Member States believe that more needs to be done before this conference can take place,” said Borrell, adding that he was confident that the conference will be organized “very soon”. Focusing on the next parliamentary elections, Borrell repeated the calls made previously in Albania also by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson for integrity in the candidate lists. “We are in the context of upcoming parliamentary elections, and in this context, we stressed the need for all to ensure that candidate lists are comprised of people with integrity,” said Borrell, asking for a constructive political dialogue between all the political parties in Albania.
During his speech, Borrell focused also on the work of the 11th meeting of the SA Council between the EU and Albania, commending Albania for “its determination to advance with the reform agenda and for the results achieved so far – in particular in the area of the rule of law.” Regarding the issue of vote-buying in the elections, Borrell said that Rama was encouraged to implement the recommendations of the OSCE-ODIHR and the Venice Commission.
After Borrell came the turn of Prime Minister Rama to deliver his speech, who took the opportunity to repeat that Albania has met the conditions for the first IGC. “The most important thing for us is that we have done our job and we are always very attentive to listen to the Commission,” said Rama. The Prime Minister repeated also his criticism against the EU for not providing vaccines to the Western Balkans. As for the issue of vote-buying, Rama confirmed that for the moment there are “20 persons that are being followed by the Prosecution and are under process.”
Meanwhile, the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Várhelyi declared that Albania has met the criteria for 1st Intergovernmental Conference. “Today we have been able to see that Albania is delivering on its promises and delivering on the criteria to be able to start the 1st Intergovernmental Conference. […] everything is met for the 1st IGC,” said the Commissioner. Focusing on the pandemic crisis, Várhelyi repeated that the European Union has helped the Western Balkans and Albania since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, and will continue to do so, by helping in providing vaccines through COVAX and other means.
