TIRANA, October 2 – The European Union has not made any decision which could be applied to follow procedures used by the USA or the United Kingdom for sanctioning certain persons, declaring them persona non- grata.
In a statement to the media on Sunday quoted by local media, the new EU ambassador to Tirana, Christiane Hohman, confirmed that she was not aware of such a decision.
“I am not aware that any decision has been made on this issue,” said Hohman.
The question addressed to the head of the mission of the EU Delegation to Tirana was prompted by the statements of the head of the Socialist Party parliamentary group made in the parliament, who addressed the chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), Sali Berisha by saying that very soon he would be declared “non- grata” by the EU.
Balla, the number two in SP, even went further claiming in front of journalists that such an initiative has been filed in the European Parliament to have a coordination between the US and the EU for persons declared “non- grata”.
But Hofman explained that it remained up to each state to independently assess an undertaking of this nature. “This is a decision that belongs to the member states, so I cannot speak on their behalf,” she said.
The ambassador agreed to comment on the progress of the screening process, which she assessed as proceeding with the right steps, but the opening of chapters on the accession process with Albania is not expected to start before the beginning of 2024 due to the volume of legislation scanning. /Argumentum.al
