TIRANA, Jan 25 /ATA/ – The National Council for European Integration held on Monday the regular online meeting entitled: “Implementation of the Action Plan for the opening of negotiations approved by parliament through the resolution dated 24.09.2020 on “Opening of Albania’s EU Accession Negotiations and Approval of the Action Plan for Fulfilling the Priorities set by the Council of the European Union.”
The Vice President of NCEI, Taulant Balla, praised the institutions involved in the action plan for their work in meeting the priorities set by the EU Council.
Balla said that, “it is an important assignment completed in every priority set by the Council despite postponement of the First Intergovernmental Conference, which unfortunately happened for reasons that are irrelevant to us.”
However, Balla added, “despite the recurrent postponement of the First Conference, we are fully committed to reforms, not because the EU insists on them, but because we owe it to our citizens, who unanimously support with more than 95% the country’s integration processes. ”
Balla pointed out that, “even the electoral reform should not be left out of the scope in this reporting. The amendments to the Electoral Code adopted as a result of the June 5 agreement were another important step forward. And I want to underline the fact that the majority here in the Albanian Parliament strictly adhered to the June 5 agreement as part of our commitment to cooperation even with the out- of- parliament opposition and I believe that now the entire legal framework to guarantee free, fair, democratic and broadly accepted elections is in place.
For her part, the chair of NCEI, Rudina Hajdari, said that “Albania’s European integration process has taken steps backward and we must be realistic in this regard, despite the fact that the whole process is seen as one of national interest and should be seen as such. ”
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