TIRANA, Feb 20 /ATA/ –By I. Vata/ – Albania has made really outstanding progress during last year and the country has implemented major reforms, such as the justice reform and the law on asylum, the European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson stated at a joint conference with Albania’s chief negotiator for accession talks with the EU, Zef Mazi, following a meeting with the Prime Minister Edi Rama in Tirana on Saturday.
In his remarks, chief negotiator Zef Mazi said that “Albania’s PM Rama had the pleasure to meet the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, with whom the government head had an open discussion on our cooperation with the EU on the whole range of issues on home affairs.”
“The visit is taking place at the right time with significant focus on Albania. Albania is on the verge of starting the membership negotiations and the issues discussed by the Prime Minister and the Commissioner undoubtedly have an impact on our progress forward,” Mazi said.
“During talks with the Commissioner, the Premier highlighted the long list of accomplishments of our authorities. Talks focused on various important aspects, including police cooperation, cooperation with the EU law enforcement agencies, border control issues, better migration management, etc. Albania’s cooperation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, FRONTEX, as the Agency’s only member country in the Western Balkans, but not a member of the EU, to host border and coast guard troops in its territory, best demonstrates Albania’s substantial contribution to the common European security,” he said.
Mazi also said that “PM Rama assured the EU Commissioner that she can count on Albanian government and its commitment to deliver on the abovementioned areas and further expand cooperation to fulfil shared objectives.”
According to Mazi, “the Premier also informed Commissioner that regional deals are about to finalize in order to allow citizens from all countries in the region to travel freely with their identity cards only as part of the closer regional cooperation drive and the efforts to create a common regional market. In the context of regional cooperation in the Balkans, the two also put emphasis on the importance of expanding the green lane border crossings, an initiative launched last March, with the EU member states. The move would represent an initial step, not only towards integration into the common European market, but also a quality step towards the post-pandemic economic recovery of our countries.”
“The Premier also expressed readiness and the expectation that her visit to Tirana would serve as solid source of the information on Albania’s progress during last year and that she would support Albania in all future discussions in Brussels so that a decision on adoption of Albania’s negotiating framework is made as soon as possible and set a date for the first intergovernmental conference,” Mazi said.
On her part, the EU Commissioner for the Home Affairs Ylva Johansson she was pleased to have an open and sincere discussion with PM Rama.
“We of course tackled a series of issues, but one of the main messages I conveyed here is that I congratulate Albania for its progress, during the last year in particular, regarding the justice issues, home affairs, security and migration. In fact, Albania has made really great progress over the last year and that’s why the Commission decided in March to open the accession negotiations with Albania and in December we saw that all conditions were met for the first intergovernmental conference to take place. Of course, this should be confirmed and decided by the Council, but this is actually the Commission’s recommendation” the Commissioner said.
“Albania is the first non-EU member state with which we have signed the agreement with the FRONTEX status. And the agreement is working. For around one year and a half, our FRONTEX teams, including more than 60 FRONTEX officials, are here and are working on the border between Albania and Greece and I will meet them together with Interior Minister Çuçi. Albania and the EU have established cooperation on all areas and law enforcement and home affair agencies. This is actually very peculiar and a model we would want to repeat with all other countries in the Western Balkans. This is an important step we are taking together and I am very pleased about that. I am also very pleased at seeing major reforms in the country being pushed forward, including the justice reform, the law on asylum that Albania has already approved,” she said.
“Albania is approaching the elections date and all parties should assume their responsibility to make utmost efforts and ensure integrity of all candidates on the lists, so that we can together go on to convince EU member states. It was a good meeting and I am here to congratulate you for the important progress on security and rule of law affairs, but of course a lot remain to be done and I am looking forward to cooperating with Albania,” the EU commissioner concluded.
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