TIRANA, Nov 17 /ATA/ Speaking in Parliament about the progress report of the EU, Interior Minister Bledi Çuçi said that this discussion is taking place in a new context, given that our country has another rapport with the European Union after the opening of accession negotiations.
Referring to Chapter 24, which deals with order and security, Çuçi emphasized that so far we have reached 52% alignment with the EU acquis.
He brought to attention the bilateral meeting in Brussels a few days ago, where Albania received encouraging feedback for the work done. Minister of Interior cited some of the achievements in the field of security.
“Regarding some aspects mentioned in the progress report itself, I want to brief you on the facts that we have on the table today vis-a-vis all the observations and all the recommendations coming from the EU. The fight against organized crime is one of the priorities and one of the major problems facing the Albanian government, where we are engaged, initially in terms of ambitious legislative and organizational changes, achieving very significant results in this regard”, he emphasized.
“Suffice it to check the track-record, to see that there is a significant increase, both in relation to the referrals to the prosecutor’s office for structured criminal groups, but also in the increase in final sentences. And here let’s stop at the facts; in 2021, 41 new cases were referred to the prosecutor’s office, 14 indictments for a structured criminal group, compared to, much less than two years ago, and 19 cases were closed with final sentences handed down to 75 people at the Appeal level “, said the minister.
“I tell you these facts because this is the language we speak today with our EU partners. Because this is the way we will negotiate with EU institutions”, added Çuçi.
But, he continued, “even for serious crimes, another fact, in 2021 alone, 3913 new cases were referred to the prosecutor’s office; compared to 2838 in 2020. This increase is attributed to the increase in referrals of drugs trafficking cases; 3078 referrals are only for drug trafficking”.
“It is worth mentioning that the structures of the State Police have increased the use of special investigation techniques, and these are feedback coming from EU institutions. Proactive investigations have increased, standing alongside European partners, as if we were a member country, in dozens of joint investigative or operational teams that are ongoing at the moment”, underlined Çuçi.
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