Political consensus welcomed, says president

TIRANA, Jan. 21 – President Bamir Topi said the country’s political class was maturing, adding that the country looked for more consensual ideas from the political class, which was optimistically welcomed recently. In an interview with the private television channel Alsat, Topi focused on the legal and electoral reforms, considered to be fundamental to the country’s integration efforts into NATO and the European Union. Topi hailed the common political language introduced recently in the Albanian Parliament’s resolution for NATO membership.
Regarding reform in the judiciary, the president said it was good to make some urgent steps that were needed ahead of the Bucharest NATO summit, but it would be an integral one that would continue until reaching the desired results.
The president also urged the political parties to speed up their efforts on electoral reform, which he called, “exclusively an issue of the parties.” He was optimistic the reforms would be completed for the next general elections in 2009, unlike the other times when electoral issues were resolved in extremis. The next three months prior to the NATO summit are considered decisive for electoral reform as well. Population census and the issuing of identity cards is considered fundamental to achieving democratic standards in the electoral process, he said. On NATO’s possible membership, the president hoped that the alliance’s member countries would make an “objective evaluation.” “If Albania receives the invitation to join NATO, I assure you many points have been won for the integration into the European Union because the coefficient of security, the possibility of investment are added,” said Topi. The president is also to hold a three-day visit to Kosova at the end of this week. Topi said that Kosova’s independence would be a main topic he would discuss at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe he would attend this week.
“Kosova’s independence has a very long and difficult road which is remembered and handed down from the Kosovar intellectuals, citizens and students who under very repressed conditions fought for it.” The president spoke at length how all Albanian institutions had held a lobbying campaign in favor of Kosova’s independence, mentioning that all meetings at home or abroad were also concentrated on that issue.
“Recognition of Kosova’s independence is a direct challenge to the European Union authority as well,” he said, adding he was “optimistic that the EU would behave as a unique bloc to demonstrate the success of its policy.”