TIRANA, Nov 10 /ATA/ Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, stated on Wednesday that Albania has made great progress in many issues and expressing hope that the First Intergovernmental Conference will be held as soon as possible.
At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama after the meeting at the government building, Rutte, said: “I am very happy that we were able to take the first step in the EU accession process.
Yes, it is right that in order to officially launch the First Intergovernmental Conference, it is essential that we resolve the deadlock created by Bulgaria’s veto. I hope they will do. They will head to elections on Sunday. I very much hope they will do this. I will also visit North Macedonia later.”
“You have made great progress on so many issues and that is why we now agree to formally start these negotiations, because to be fair and rigorous, the necessary progress has been made,” Rutte said.
“We talked about what should be done in relation to the universities, in relation to agricultural sector. Other opportunities. Exports. In order not to be a “Yes” or “No” in the sense of full membership or nothing, but to have something in between along the way we move forward. I believe we have to work on this,” Rutte said.
“I am also very happy for the fact that both our countries are developing bilateral ties in a very deep and satisfactory way. So we cooperate economically on investments, on exports. Almost half of the country’s exports go to EU countries and meanwhile the Netherlands is the largest investor in Albania. “And I assure you that these companies are working to do even more business in this country,” said Rutte.
“In fact, we do not work together only economically. We also work in relation to architects, as the case of Dutch architects involved here in Albania, in Tirana, ” said Rutte.
“We continue to meet, we met at the NATO Summit, at the Western Balkans Summit, and we met again last Monday at COP26 in Glasgow. Let’s maintain the momentum, meet, build this friendship, make it very practical and I believe we are both very practical people. Because there are longer-term goals, we are working on it, we are supporting them. But let us make sure that some of those long-term benefits are present in the short run, and hope that we will succeed after Sunday’s elections in Bulgaria, in making sure that at least two Intergovernmental Conferences will kick off,” said Rutte.
Asked what reforms Albania has made to fight organized crime in these three months after the elections that it did not do three years ago when year after year the Netherlands vetoed the opening of negotiations, Rutte said that “we have developed a very good relationship during these two years in the fight against organized crime, cooperation in the field of justice and that of the police. We also discussed the opportunities for stepping up this cooperation in today’s one- on- one meeting. This has built the confidence, but also the fact that being rigorous and fair, since we always go over European Commission reports showing how far Albania has gone in reform of judiciary independence, the Vetting of Albanian judges and in fight against organized crime. “
He stated that Albania has made significant progress in the last 5 years.
“We all have a lot of work to do, my country, but also Albania will have to do more in the coming years, but the progress that has been achieved in the last 5 years has been so great that made us say, yes. I have to say that we have been reluctant for so long by saying no to accession talks, this is of course not just a matter of organized crime but also of the rule of law, of economy and how we converge in our work together in this part of the Western Balkans with the EU. The point is that we want this region to have an EU perspective for many reasons, because we are friends, because we are neighbours, and also because others can take advantage of this, by exercising leverage in this region. So there are geopolitical and geostrategic reasons to do so on top of accepting the fact that under the stewardship of Edi Rama, so many steps have been taken,” the Prime Minister of the Netherlands said.
/sm/
