In his declaration yesterday regarding to the European Commission recommendation to open accession negotiations with Albania, Prime Minister denied that these were conditional:
Albania has today received a positive recommendation for the opening of the [EU accession] negotiations without conditions and only with the understanding, quite naturally, that until the moment we start working at the negotiation table, the implementation of the judicial reforms continues uninterruptedly.
This statement is in stark contrast with the wording of the EC, which stated that the recommendation “that Member States consider opening accession negotiations with Albania […] is, however, strictly subject to credible and tangible progress in the implementation of the judicial reform, in particular the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors (‘vetting’).”
Yesterday, interviewed on Ora News by Ilva Tare, European Parliament Deputy Eduard Kukan confirmed that the opening of accession negotiations is conditioned by the reforms mentioned in the recommendation
The Constitutional Court, which is currently deliberating the vetting legislation, has sent it for an external expert opinion to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
