Fuele in the Balkans, Albania

TIRANA, March 16 – European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele will hold his first Western Balkans tour.
That is seen as a sign to offer support to the Western Balkans and provide the region with political direction in its efforts to join the EU.
Fuele believes that the accession process gives the countries of the Western Balkans strong support for implementing political and economic reforms.
Fuele is scheduled to visit Serbia on Wednesday, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro on Thursday and end his journey in Albania and Kosovo on Friday.
According to the WAZ.EUobserver, Fuele is supposed to deliver three key messages to the countries in the region: strong support for the European perspective of each country, an appeal to strengthen and implement the rule of law reform agenda and a reminder of the need for regional co-operation and good neighborly relations.
Fuele’s visit to Albania’s comes as the ruling party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Socialist opposition remain locked in a heated dispute over the results of the June 28 parliamentary elections.
Berisha won narrowly and his coalition controls 75 seats in the 140-seat parliament while the opposition, which claims the polls were marred by fraud, have 65 seats together with one ally.
Although a debate is still ongoing in parliament between the two camps over a draft bill that would lead to the creation of a parliamentary investigative committee to look into the alleged irregularities at the polls, they have yet to find common ground.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday in Tirana, European Commission Director for the Western Balkans, Pier Mirel, noted that the EC was hoping that a deal would be struck between the parties before Fuele’s visit.
“The [parliamentary] commission should find a solution through consensus, because this is a key essential element for Albania to show that it is a mature parliamentary democracy,” said Mirel. “We hope that when Commissioner Fuele visits Albania on March 19, he will find a clear and sorted out situation,” Mirel added.
Fuele’s visit to Albania will also likely cover visa liberalization.
Albanian authorities should show their efforts to fulfill the road map for the visa free regime and also how they are working on the answers to the questionnaire on their candidate status request.