TIRANA, Sept. 19 – Knut Fleckenstein’s visit in Tirana reconfirmed that Brussels has not placed additional conditions for Albania’s EU membership, thus enabling membership negotiations to begin as soon as possible. Instead, he stressed, the EU capital expects Albania to continue walking the road of key reforms, such as that of the judiciary.
Albania’s Reporter for the EP said the following to local media: “Well, the first, I can’t see any additional conditions. We always spoke about the elections and we spoke about the five key priorities that have to be developed and implemented, and it wouldn’t be fair to add other conditions now to open negotiations.”
Further on, he clarified that the legal body responsible to open negotiation talks in Brussels is the European Council, not the Parliament.
However, he also confirmed that the EP will continue to work and encourage all involved actors to open the negotiation talks with Albania on the first half of the following year. Fleckenstein reassured that if Albania proceeds with the implementation of the reforms, the decision could be taken in March and negotiation talks could begin in May.
Questions concerning his opinion on cannabis cultivation in Albania could not be missing, as the fight against cannabis is another EU entrance criterion. On this issue, Fleckenstein was even briefer, saying: “We wait for the report of our Italian colleagues who are flying above your country and will tell us what the result is. But of course it’s very serious. We need for the future not only good will but really some measures which will create also for the future a better situation on that field as well.”
On a separate meeting with Minister of Interior, Fatmir Xhafaj, Fleckenstein expressed special interest towards the vetting of the State Police and the concrete results of the war against cannabis cultivation. In addition to appreciating EUROPOL for bringing foreign experts to monitor the work being done, he also appeared committed to asking the European Committee for larger support on the abovementioned priorities.
