TIRANA, Feb. 14 – This week, the EU’s Stabilization and Association Committee meeting resulted in the signing of a joint declaration by the government and opposition, asking for EU membership negotiations to open by setting an official date, despite the opposition’s remarks about a corrupt election process and lack of investigation of high officials.
This meeting comes at a time the new EU strategy paper for the Western Balkans was published, EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos highlighted the country’s security issues in a visit to Tirana and a FRONTEX agreement was signed to help the country for better border control management.
EP representative Monica Macovei said the national interest of integration stands higher than parties’ personal interests.
“Parties can argue another time, but not when it comes to EU integration or other important aspects of national interest. I strongly believe the European Commission will give its recommendation for negotiations to begin, and then we will lobby for members states to give their support,” Macovei said during the committee’s 12th meeting, which took place in the Albanian parliament.
Macovei added that opening negotiations will mark a new beginning both for the lives of Albanians and for the legal system, as accession chapters on trade, law, justice, competition but also human rights will be made available.
In turn, Macovei linked this with a raise in foreign investments and an improvement of the country’s economic conditions, saying it could also help decrease the country’s emigration flows — for which Albania is one of the region’s leaders.
Despite the joint declaration, the long-standing polemics between the government and opposition were discussed in length during the meeting.
The opposition’s main objections were the alleged corrupted election process, resulting from the buying of votes through drug money and governmental corruption, and lack of investigation of high officials.
“Reports from OSBE and ODIHR have often mentioned the phenomenon of vote selling, while avoiding this phenomenon was their main recommendation,” Oerd Bylykbashi, co-chair of the election reform committee, said during the meeting.
Nonetheless, he stressed that cooperation concerning the election reform is vital.
Macovei agreed changes are necessary to the Electoral Code, and that they should be made before the following elections.
“Despite who is in government or opposition, everyone should serve the country and realize that corruption leads to poverty,” she said.
Socialist representatives said all possibilities to improve the electoral process are present according to ODIHR recommendations and that, despite minor problems, they believed the last elections were the best the country has seen in the last 25 years.
