TIRANA, July 11 – Albania’s third largest party, the Socialist Movement for Integration, is being neglected in renewed last-minute efforts by international partners to break the deadlock on the long-awaited justice reform with only few days to go before an expected vote in Parliament.
The junior ally of the ruling Socialist Party, was not on the agenda of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, during her visit to Albania last Sunday when she held talks with Socialist Party leader and Prime Minister Edi Rama and opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha in separate meetings.
In a letter to the Socialist Party chair of the ad hoc commission on justice reform, the SMI called for transparency on the new proposal Nuland made to break the political deadlock key parties have engaged in since more than one year.
“If these negotiations are entirely confidential and it is impossible to inform me on this and the concrete proposals that are being discussed please also let me know,” the head of the SMI parliamentary group Petrit Vasili ironically wrote to Fatmir Xhafaj, the SP MP who heads the ad hoc committee on the justice reform.
“I think institutional communication is a necessity to move forward to the dimension of transparency which paves the way for overcoming this issue and helps take forward the justice reform process and raise awareness responsibly on the steps and solutions undertaken,” wrote Vasili.
His letter came after Assistant Secretary Nuland said the U.S. and the EU have put forward a new proposal, which endeavors to bridge the distance between the majority and the opposition.
“This is a hybrid proposal, which takes elements from government ideas and elements from opposition ideas and is fully compliant with Venice Commission recommendations,” said Nuland, adding that the proposal which she didn’t explain in detail has the broad support of Washington.
Nuland’s visit to Albania can be considered a move back to square one after earlier calls by U.S. ambassador to Albania Donald Lu on MPs to vote individually on the reform despite their party leaders’ political decisions apparently did not receive support.
The SMI which has emerged as a kingmaker in the last two general elections and currently has some 20 MPs in the 140 seat Parliament has been more moderate in its stance on the justice reform calling for broad political consensus. A Socialist splinter party, the SMI, has been constantly gaining ground in the traditionally two-party Albanian political landscape in the past decade and is also expected to be decisive in the next general elections. The SMI ruled with the now opposition Democratic Party from 2009 to 2013.
The reform on the highly-perceived corrupt justice system has been set as a precondition for Albania for the possible opening of accession talks with the European Commission after the country was granted candidate status in mid-2014.
U.S. and EU partners have called on political parties to adopt the constitutional changes requiring a qualified majority of two-thirds by July 21 just before Parliament’s summer recess. The proposed constitutional changes on the justice reform package need 94 votes which the ruling Socialist Party-led coalition doesn’t have on its own.
Several senior MPs, including Socialist Party MP and former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko, have left open the idea of early elections and a referendum on the justice reform if Parliament fails to adopt the justice reform by the end of this month.
