This was declared on Tuesday evening by the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fuele, who announced the decision of the 28 EU member countries:
“Evident progress and intensive efforts of the new government, but a clear perspective on the status in June 2014”.
Sources from Brussels say that the refusal came as a result of the fact that at least 5 member countries were against granting Albania the candidate status. Amongst them, Holland, Denmark, Germany, France and Great Britain.
It’s these 5 countries that proposed during this afternoon’s meeting a change in the content of the draft conclusions, where they demand for Albania to be granted the status next June.
“The Council welcomes further action in the fight against corruption and organized crime and the engagement of the new government to intensify efforts in this domain. The Council hopes to take a decision in relation to the EU candidate status for Albania in June 2014, depending on the approval of the European Council, upon the condition that Albania should continue with the encouraging progress made so far”, states the text proposed by the 5 member countries which have the biggest influence in the European Union.
- The letter demands to the European Commission to prepare another report on Albania, although the last report made it clear that Albania had fulfilled EU requisites for the status.
The final decision must be taken by the European Council, comprising of the heads of states and prime ministers of member countries, but it’s expected to reflect the same positioning as that of the foreign ministers.
- The letter of the 5 states comes a few days after 8 other EU countries addressed a letter to the EU Lithuanian presidency and High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, where they demanded for Albania to be granted the status, stressing that this country had fulfilled its obligations.
Rama admits the decision
Prime Minister Edi Rama admitted the fact that the status was not even granted this year. This evening he said: “EU, compromise between achievements of Albania and domestic deadlock outside Albania. The work of the government is praised, but the decision in June 2014”.
Opposition: Rama is the only one to be blamed
Leader of the Democratic Party analyzed on Tuesday evening the negative decision of the European Council and said that Edi Rama is not trusted even by Brussels now.
“The Democratic Party of Albania is sad to learn the decision taken a few hours ago by the European Council to postpone once again the EU candidate status for Albania. This is bad news and undesired news for Albania and Albanians, the most pro European people of the region, which at the end of this year, was expecting to be granted the status and to embark on the journey of new challenges in order to become part of the big European family”, said Basha.
Basha said that the refusal made by the EU to the new government is a clear signal as to the reasons why it should not continue to govern the country. /ibna/
balkaneu.com
17/12/12
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Albania tries hard to get EU candidate status in June...
ReplyDeleteTIRANA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama indicated on Monday his country would try hard to get the status of the European Union (EU) candidate by June.
"The Albanian government will be held accountable for what belongs to the government. We shall make our best so that June turns out to be the time of the proper decision on Albania," Rama said, in response to questions about the government's responsibility if Albania fails to get the status of the EU candidate country by June.
During the news conference "2013 in Review" and the work of the government since it came to power, Rama said "I reiterate, we remain hopeful that the extremist forces which influenced into the undesirable decision-making will have no affect this time to our path of European integration."
"The EU has positively assessed Albania's steps, the job done by the new government and setting June as the deadline for getting the status is significant," Rama said.
Speaking about the "extremist" forces in the EU, Rama said that, "They are EU concern as they are trends of a policy that runs counter to the EU values and ideals. It is not up to us to resolve their issues, but we have to make the utmost so that not to get conditioned by these trends."
http://english.cntv.cn/20131231/101152.shtml
31/12/13