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Southeast Europe
June 14, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Albania, North Macedonia see hoped for EU accession talks slipping away
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje and Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
The prime ministers of Albania and North Macedonia are engaged in last ditch attempts to secure the go ahead from EU leaders for the start of accession negotiations this month.
The European Council is due to hold a session on June 20-21 to decide whether it will allow the two Western Balkan countries, both accession candidates for years, to launch EU accession negotiations.
The European Commission recommended in its latest package of enlargement reports last month that the Council should green light the talks. However, since then a political crisis has erupted in Albania, where President Ilir Meta announced on June 8 that he will cancel the June 30 local elections following months of often violent protests and an announced opposition boycott
of the vote. “[C]onditions do not exist for “true, democratic, representative and all-inclusive elections,” Meta said.
Prime Minister Edi Rama insists the vote will
go ahead regardless of Meta’s decision, and the ruling Socialist Party plans to launch proceedings to impeach Meta.
He visited Brussels on June 11 for talks with top EU officials in an attempt to persuade them to allow the start of negotiations. "It is time for Europe to do what we expect after we did our part, and to recognise our merit and give the green light for accession talks," Rama said
after meeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The situation in Albania remains volatile; the OSCE’s chairperson-in-office Miroslav Lajcak warned on June 11 that the crisis risks bringing “the function- ing of the state institutions to a standstill.”
At a joint press conference with Rama on June 11, Juncker also warned of the consequences should Albania fail to go ahead with the local elections. “I think the local elections must be held. Otherwise the EU perspective of Albania will be compromised,” Juncker said.
Even before Meta announced the cancellation of the local elections, Tirana’s prospects for starting accession talks were looking uncertain. Germany has postponed discussion on the issue in its parliament, while MPs in the Netherlands voted in May to call on the EU to suspend visa free travel for Albanian citizens in the Schengen zone over its concerns about organised crime. Both Austria and the Netherlands are understood to be inclined not to approve the start of accession talks with Tirana.
North Macedonia had appeared to be a shoo
in for the start of talks this year, as the country formerly known as Macedonia took the radical step of changing its name to end a long-standing dispute with Greece, finally opening the way for it to progress towards EU and Nato accession.
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