Tirana Times
TIRANA, April 14 – The European Union and the United States have both urged Albanian politicians not to refer to violence and to avoid it along the electoral campaign.
In a debate held at the European Parliament on the Western Balkans its top leaders made it clear that the political stalemate has blocked reforms in the last two years and urged Albanian to hold free and fair elections as the next step toward integration into the bloc.
A special inter-parliamentary session at the European Parliament in the last two days also served to mention Albania and its democratic progress. Albania is still to be formally offered candidate status, after it was denied in the first instance last year.
Top European leaders reaffirmed that EU enlargement was on their agenda but they also urged the western Balkan politicians to avoid political confrontation which is damaging their integration prospects. They also expressed their concerns including political corruption and the independence of the judiciary.
To become an EU member state, a candidate country must fulfil the “acquis communautaire”, meaning that it must take on all existing laws of the EU.
European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek said the Albanian political scene has been dogged by allegations of corruption – with four people killed during an anti-government rally in January.
Stefano Sannino, the Director of Expansion for the Western Balkans, was on his second visit to Tirana to meet with the leaders of the country. Completion of the 12 obligations that Albania must fulfill in order to achieve to get the status of EU candidate country, was the main issue that Sannino discussed during the meeting with leaders of the country. US Ambassador Alexander Arvizu also repeated his calls for calm in his frequent appearances in different activities in the country during the last days.
The OSCE Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth and EC Ambassador Ettore Sequi have also exploited any opportunity to call on Albanian politicians to keep their militants calm and proceed with democratic holding of the May 8 local elections.
