TIRANA, Jan.28 – U.S Ambassador in Tirana Donald Lu highlighted once again on Thursday that the completion of the justice reform tops the list of American interests in Albania.
In an interview for the Voice of America, the top U.S diplomat in the country declared that he remains hopeful that the Albanian Parliament will approve the reform this coming spring, while he urged the political class in Albania to take action.
“Now it’s time for politicians to do their job. It is necessary that political party leaders work together to find a formula, which is acceptable for both the opposition and the government,” the U.S ambassador stated.
However, Washington’s efforts for strengthening democracy and the rule of law in Albania and the fight against corruption will not be exclusively limited to the justice reform as one of the next steps is going to be the creation and training of the National Bureau of Investigation along the same lines as the American F.B.I.
Another step in this aspect will be the strengthening of non-governmental organizations and independent media, which will serve as watchdogs for abuses committed by the government or the opposition. Lu also spoke of ties that exist between politics and the crime world in Albania, declaring that the decriminalization law is a powerful instrument to sever ties between the two worlds.
The U.S Ambassador stated during the interview for VOA that many candidates with a dubious past were removed from ballots during the last local elections and that he was also optimistic that several politicians will have to abandon the political scene as a result of the entry into force of the decriminalization law, which he described as Europe’s toughest. Regarding corruption, the top U.S diplomat declared that he sees in Albania a desire as well as an effort to rise against corruption, which in his view will bring the demise of corruption in the country. At the end of the interview, Lu described relations between the United States and Albania as excellent.
