Tirana Times
TIRANA, Nov. 10 – The European Commission on Tuesday said Montenegro was ready to become an official candidate nation to join the European Union, a major step forward in the membership process, but added that neighboring Albania still needed further political and fiscal reforms to advance its membership application.
On Albania, Brussels made it very clear that the country should continue to fulfil a number of criteria, especially in regard to the political criteria of Copenhagen, which are related to institution stability and which guarantee a consistent democracy and Rule of Law.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele emphasized that the normal functioning of parliament is still a priority for Albania, which is based on constructive political dialogue among all political parties. Another criterion is the adoption of several laws, which ask for a full majority.
Albania applied in April 2009 for the candidate status. In its Opinion, the Commission recommends the opening of accession negotiations, if progress is recorded in a number of key areas as set out in the opinion.
The commission concluded that, while good progress was made during the last 12 months, further reforms are needed in a number of key areas, as set out in the opinion, before the country can be ready to start accession negotiations.
“We share with Albania the common objective to welcome it one day in the EU family. Albania has come a long way already on the EU integration path. The road is long and difficult, and main challenges lie in Albania itself. I hope Albania will find the political determination necessary to overcome these obstacles and to build a true democratic society, with a strong market economy and a body of legislation fully aligned with that of the EU. This will allow us to meet our joint objective and to contribute to a better life for the citizens of Albania,” said Fuele.
The report said, “The 2009 legislative elections met most international standards and were an improvement over past elections, even if some deficiencies were identified.
Albania has in recent years strengthened rule of law, in particular by conducting legislative and institutional reforms of the judiciary and in the fight against corruption.
Law enforcement bodies have been strengthened. The country’s legal and institutional framework on human rights is largely in place and broadly corresponds to European standards.
However, further efforts will be required to address shortcomings in the political field. Public administration remains weak and politicized. A comprehensive and coordinated judiciary reform strategy is pending. Enforcement of rule of law remains deficient. A solid track record of effective fight against corruption and organized crime needs to be developed. Implementation of legislation and policy instruments in the field of human rights and protection of minorities is still insufficient.”
To become a functioning market economy, Albania needs to further strengthen governance, improve the performance of the labor market, remove uncertainties in the field of property rights and step up law enforcement.
Albania needs to strengthen its physical infrastructure and human capital and pursue further structural reforms.
Fiscal consolidation has been reversed recently and the high level of public debt remains a source of macro-financial vulnerability. Weaknesses in the rule of law hamper the business environment.
Europe also said that Albania still needs to make substantial progress in other fields such as, environment, intellectual property, transport, agriculture, food safety, social policy and audio-visual. Albania needs to demonstrate more concrete results in the fight against drugs, human trafficking and money laundering.
The report made it 12 fields in which the country should focus until next year, when the European Commission is to produce the next report.
They cover a functioning and a constructive parliament, political dialogue, adoption of pending laws, nomination of the Ombudsman and constitutional and high court appointments, modify the legislative framework for elections, ensure elections are conducted in line with European and international standards, public administration reform, strengthen rule of law, effectively implement the government’s anti-corruption strategy and action plan, strengthen the fight against organized crime, property rights, human rights, additional measures to improve treatment of detainees in police stations, pre-trial detention and prisons.
Political reactions
As expected, both political groupings treated and reacted based on their previous stands referring to the report.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha said the report will serve as the work basis for his cabinet.
Besides that, all the reactions could be easily considered as politically biased.
The governing Democratic Party harshly denounced the opposition Socialist Party’s boycott of the parliament and its fight against them that has obviously affected Europe to give a negative answer to the country’s application.
While the opposition Socialists of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama also did not change from their well-known stand that the government bears all the blame for the failure.
Rama also said he had told the EC senior official Pierre Mirel the government was harshly violating the autonomy of the local authorities and that central authorities were also trying to manipulate with the register of the population, or the voters’ list as needed now.
Rama added that the party was prepared to launch the biggest ever protests against the government.
All these do not give any hope to any Albanian. The country will very likely remain at this stage of candidate status application for many years to come.
Europe made it clear that if you, Albanians, do not accept each other, why should we?
Europe also made it clear that conditionality set for the visa liberalization was very efficient in urging the countries western Balkans to fulfil and reach certain standards required from them.
So, Albanians would really push Europe to set such strict standards to Albanian politicians and, besides, also make it clear that any failure is really up to them.
