US Envoy for the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer has argued that Albania has made enough progress in its EU path to deserve the start of talks in December.
“In our view, Albania has made enough progress to justify the next step, the Intergovernmental Conference,” he told the Voice of America in Albanian on Friday, adding that the US administration would like to this happen before the end of the German presidency of the Council of the EU in 2020.
Palmer praised the adoption of the electoral reform, reached after talks with the opposition facilitated by the US and EU embassies.
He highlighted the need for the Constitutional Court and High Court to be made functional and start working with backlog cases, as well as for the new investigative justice institutions to function at full capacity and show concrete progress.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that the start of EU talks with Albania in December is unlikely.
