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Opinion
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
COMMENT:
Does Germany hold the key for Albania’s accession to the EU?
bne IntelliNews
The European Commission's new progress re- ports for the six Western Balkan countries, in- cluding Albania, are expected next week. Crucially, they will evaluate performance against delivery
of the required and important reforms expected and the current status of political and economic development. The reports will give clear guidance from the EC on their recommendations for the way forward for European Union (EU) enlargement to the Balkans.
Negotiations are already well advanced for Mon- tenegro and Serbia, where further progress is needed in respect of reform of the judicial and legal systems, and a possible entry date of 2025 has already been talked about.
One possible way forward would be for these countries to follow the regional lead of Albania
in implementing wholesale reform of their legal systems. Albania is currently going through a major transformation of the vetting and appoint- ment system for judges and prosecutors, under the scrutiny of international monitoring. There are other country specific issues that will need to be addressed for Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, but for Albania the EU has acknowledged solid achievements with their reform efforts and pro- gress on their accession path.
The critical question for Albania now is whether or not the EC will recommend opening the EU accession negotiations with the country. The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council will attempt
Albania has made a lot of progress in reforms needed to join the EU
to give Western Balkan enlargement a boost when it convenes a special summit on May 17 in Sofia, to be hosted by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and chaired by EC president Donald
Tusk. A final decision on the way forward is then expected to be taken at the European Council summit in Brussels on June 28-29.
Albania has already received solid praise for the progress made in the fields of foreign policy, security policy and justice reform, and has shown energy and dedication both in implementing reforms and in their aspiration to embrace European ideals. Speaking in the European Parliament last month, the High Representative for Foreign Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini said: "We need that kind of energy, this pro-European energy inside the Union exactly to remind ourselves what it is about."
But a decision to open EU accession talks is by no means guaranteed, and there remains much political work to be done to convince the populists and eurosceptics in EU Member States who are arguing against expansion of the EU. The Euro- pean Parliament is generally firm and united in its vision to support the enlargement process, and there is broad cross-party agreement that the Parliament should rally behind the recom- mendation of the European Commission when
it is published. But at member state level, the issue is still highly controversial.