EU Mediates Politics

TIRANA, Feb. 17 – The European Union on Wednesday issued a strong warning that political crises may have a negative impact on Albania’s integration efforts into the bloc.
The governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama are in a seven-month political crisis over alleged electoral fraud.
The Socialist lawmakers have boycotted Parliament for months – blocking most legislative work – and staged large protests demanding a recount of the June 28 polls – which the government has ruled out.
After a meeting of EU member countries’ diplomats Wednesday political parties were urged to reach a deal or “the EU perspective for Albania is at stake.”
That was made by Spanish Ambassador Manuel Montobbio, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, and also supported by EC Ambassador Helmuth Lohan.
That has been a repeated call from Brussels for much time in the last months.
What one may notice is that this time it is not the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe playing the key mediating role as before, like that in the anarchic 1997 year.
It is the European Union. Naturally Washington, United States is always present pushing hard but in coordination with Brussels.
That may come as a natural role for Brussels as Albania is preparing the answers for the candidate status questionnaire that is to be considered by the EU Council of Ministers later this year.
Tirana is also expecting the visa-free regime this summer.
These two key issues depend on the stand that will be taken by EU member countries and they are making a simple call: resolve your political issues in order to take care of the other important reforms.
Besides Lohan also added that they are not to hand over a package to resolve the political dispute. That is to be found by the political parties.
This Monday on the first day of work in office, the European Commission Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said they want to see concrete results from efforts to solve the political stalemate in Albania, his spokesperson Angela Filote said.
So everything now depends on the Democrats controlling 75 of parliament’s 140 seats and the Socialists having 65 posts which they are boycotting and also threatening with street protests unless the ballot boxes are recounted.