Intensive ‘help’ from the world in resolving political crises

TIRANA, Feb. 15 – The political crises that is the main topic in the country’s daily work is being closely followed and also assisted by the international community.
Before the Saturday talks Helmut Lohan, head of the EC delegation in Tirana, said Brussels welcomed a political roundtable organized by President Bamir Topi aiming at ending a parliamentary boycott the opposition Socialist Party has been staging since September.
Lohan said that, “… it is up to [the] political leaders of Albania to find a solution in order to continue European integration in line with the country’s interests.”
The EU Presidency welcomed the initiative praising the readiness of Albania’s two biggest parties — the SP and the ruling Democratic Party — to participate.
The EU delegation in Tirana announced that the EU would closely watch the crisis talks between the opposition and the government due to be held later this week.
“The EU Enlargement commissioner is watching the situation in Albania closely,” said Lohan. “What we are watching for is how fast this crisis will be resolved, and how fast a solution will be found for the problem of a nonfunctional parliament, because only half of [the deputies] are currently participating.”
Spanish Ambassador Manuel Montobbio de Balanse also made interviews to the local press before and after the Saturday talks.
The Council of Europe, the OSCE and the US, also called for talks between the two leaders to start on Saturday, with the aim of negotiating a solution that is acceptable to both sides.
The boycott has poisoned the political climate in the country and brought to a halt the functioning of the assembly, which requires more than a simple majority to pass EU accession related reforms.
It has been made clear to everyone that in fact it was not an initiative from the country’s president, but more a pressure exercised from the Council of Europe’s parliamentary Assembly and other international factors for the round table to take place to resolve the political crises.
That clearly brings in mind to everyone the same situation of 1997, the year of anarchy, when the international community, an OSCE-nominated person served as mediator between the two opposing political sides in Albania.
Can’t Albanian politicians do anything on their own?