EU Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn declared today that there will be no opening of accession negotiations with Albania unless three conditions are fulfilled: holding free elections, the war on drugs, and the implementation of the vetting. Hahn responded to Prime Minister Edi Rama’s recent requests to the EU to quickly start with negotiations after the elections.
According to Ora News, Hahn stated in a meeting with journalists in Brussels:
It is nice to ask for the opening of the negotiations, but we can do so, or react, if the criteria that we have continuously ask for are treated in an encouraging way and will produce positive results. First we will look at the elections, second a credible beginning of the vetting process, and third an effective war on drugs.
Whether the June 25 elections will be up to EU standards depends on the OSCE-ODIHR report which is expected a few months after the elections.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament passed the Progress Report for Albania in February, in which it stated that opening of the accession negotiation will be predicated on 5 conditions:
- Implementation of the judicial reform and the vetting law;
- Fight against corruption, especially high-level corruption;
- Fight against organized crime, especially cannabis cultivation and trafficking;
- Implementation of the decriminalization law;
- Electoral reform according to OSCE-ODIHR recommendations and free and fair elections.
It is unclear to what extent the comments of Commissioner Hahn are a deviation from these official conditions set by the European Parliament.
