TIRANA, Jan. 9 – Knut Fleckenstein, MEP and the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Albania, said Sunday that European Union must boost support for Western Balkans in order to maintain the reform momentum over the coming years.
In an op-ed titled ‘Why enlargement matters,’ Fleckenstein, mentions the example of Albania which has received support from European Union for its reforms.
“Albania is an example of a candidate country where the EU has accepted to give substantial support to bringing about a comprehensive judiciary reform,” he said.
“It is up to the candidate countries to continue implementing their ambitious reform packages and not to lose track of their objective – EU membership” he added.
Fleckenstein said that the lengthy processes can diminish the citizens’ enthusiasm in the candidate countries and that EU “should come up with additional measures to clearly demonstrate the will to bring these countries to EU.”
Fleckenstein reiterated that EU needs an active enlargement strategy that “keeps the enlargement countries firmly engaged and promotes and strengthens the accession process in the Western Balkans.”
He argues that “without an ambitious and effective enlargement policy, the EU will not be able to maintain its influence over the democratisation and stabilisation process.”
According to Fleckenstein, European integration of the Western Balkan countries will only be successful if accession reforms will receive support by the citizens. He urged Western Balkan countries to increase fight against corruption and organised crime, guarantee an independent and effective judiciary as well as well-functioning mechanisms for regional cooperation.
He appealed for the continuation of the promotion of democracy, rule of law, strengthening of democratic institutions, and media freedom and transparency.
Fleckenstein underlined the importance of regional cooperation “inside and outside EU institutions” since “good neighbourly relations are the cornerstone of European integration.”
“European integration should lead to political, economic and social progress and should be expressed through the will of those in government to cooperate to share economic prosperity and solidarity with neighbouring countries and to speak together with one voice on the international scene,” he concluded.
