TIRANA – The failure to meet the 15 conditions set by the European Commission for the start of the accession negotiations with the Union will delay the initiation of the process, according to the deliberations of a special hearing held at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on the situation in Albania on Monday.
“There are 15 conditions that Albania must meet before the decision to open the negotiations with the EU,” warned the rapporteur for Albania, David Lega in the session.
Lega noted that the government is very tough with journalists and very smooth with the traffickers. “There will be no negotiations unless this relationship is changed,” he said. The rapporteur stressed the need to toughen the fight against organized crime and drugs.
In addition Lega appreciated the stance of President Ilir Meta in defense of the Constitution. “Albania is on the verge of opening negotiations for membership in the European Union, but concrete results are still expected for key reforms,” he said.
In the meantime the member of the European Parliament (MEP), Michael Gahler of the Group of the European People’s Party, said he had no information what is being done with the files 184 and 339 of the buying of votes on the previous elections in Albania.
”I will not list the 15 conditions but I will focus on one of them: the one on the buying of the votes and their manipulation. There are two cases: file 184 in Diber (northeastern Albania) and file 339 in Shijak (central Albania). There are three years that a probe goes on into them but we have no accusations by the prosecution. There is only news that justice is being prevented,” he said. /argumentum.al
