Visa-free travel will come ‘soon,’ says Fuele

TIRANA, June 28 – EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele says he is confident Albania will soon have visa-free regime with most of the European Union.
But at the same time Fuele said that the political conflict in the country was not helping its integration progress into the European Union. In an interview with private television station Top Channel, Fuele said that the European Parliament, with the modest assistance from the European Commission, had initiated a mediation to give an end to the political conflict in the country. He expressed his disappointment with the failure to achieve any positive results until now and that the Albania political parties “did not exploit such an opportunity.”
He also said that he had continuously made it know to the Albanian leaders that the Copenhagen criteria, the stability of the institutions, a functional parliament is one of the key elements for the country’s integration.
Fuele declined to give any direct answer whether the Albanian candidate status request would be fulfilled, also taking into consideration the political deadlock. He only said that Brussels experts were already working on the responses of the questionnaire and the answer would be by November.
But, on the other side, Fuele was very confident that he hoped the “Albanian citizens will soon move in the Schengen zone without needing a visa.” The country’s political fight does not affect the visa liberalization process, he said.
Fuele also said that Brussels closely followed the freedom of the media in the country but he declined to give his opinion on the Albanian court verdict of setting a 400,000 euro fine on a private media outlet in favor of a former minister for breaking his privacy, though he had abused with his post.