TIRANA, Mar. 20 – During a hearing on Tuesday to examine the progress made and persisting challenges current EU candidate countries face in fulfilling fundamental EU criteria, the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE) criticised Albania and other Balkan EU candidate countries on “stagnation” over rule of law issues.
Danielsson commented during the hearing that the rule of law is a core and essential value and that a country must respect and promote common values including rule of law.
Although he noted that there have been some improvements in the region, limited progress has been made, with some countries even going backwards rather than forwards.
“A lot of countries that wish to join the EU are far from reaching the criteria and in some we have backsliding” he said, adding that candidate states such as Albania need to show their determination to move forward with EU accession processes.
President of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio stated that Constitutional Courts need to be independent so they can adequately defend the rule of law, noting that politicians are prone to attempting these courts when they do not like the judgement.
Albania at present, has no functioning constitutional court. This has resulted in situations where unconstitutional laws that benefit the government have been passed with no challenge, to the detriment of the country and the rule of law.
Buquicchio added that the presence of the rule of law should be a “key element” in deciding if a country is accepted into the EU. He added that candidate states need to reform the judiciary, not just to satisfy membership requirements but for the benefit of citizens as well.
Meanwhile, political experts in the room underlined the importance of civil society in each of these countries in partnering with the EU to hold leaders accountable for their actions and their policy making.
So far, civil society has largely been ignored in Albania by the EU, in favour of “propaganda” that has been presented to them by the incumbent government.
Naim Rashiti, Executive Director at Balkans Policy Research Group in Pristina added that the Albanian government is using agenda reforms negatively against the opposition, adding to signs of tension across the region.
This statement may well refer to the Albanian government trying to portray the opposition’s recent anti-government rallies and its decision to give up its parliamentary mandates as an effort to hinder the ongoing justice reform, instead of a protest against credible links that tie the Socialist with criminal networks and ballot-buying.
In its annual human rights report, the US Department of State last week stated once more that the rule of law and corruption within the country’s judiciary has not improved since last year, highlighting issues with impunity, corrupt practices within law enforcement, lack of media freedom,and allegations of vote buying.
Before acceding to the European Union, each candidate country have to fulfil the Copenhagen Treaty criteria, which comprise of fundamental rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the bloc or not.
Current EU candidate countries are Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Potential candidates are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
