TIRANA, Nov 9 /ATA/ – The Chargé d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Luigi Soreca said that the European Commission recognizes Albania’s continued progress in reforms under the fundamentals cluster, including with the continued implementation of the comprehensive justice reform.
Ambassador Soreca underlined that Albania’s accession process is well on track more than one year after the first intergovernmental conference was launched.
Soreca stated that the shared objective is to open the Fundamentals cluster by the end of this year.
According to him, the 2023 Progress Report notes that the Albanian authorities have continued to consistently state their political commitment to the strategic goal of EU integration.
“Albania has maintained its record of alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy. This is of particular relevance in the current geopolitical context and we Albania’s active engagement in the UN Security Council since January 2022, notably in relation to the response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Albania’s stance is seen as a strong signal of its strategic choice of EU accession and of its role as a reliable partner,” he said.
As regards the Parliament, Soreca said that the report notes that the high level of political polarisation has continued to seriously affect parliamentary activity.
Soreca emphasized that the functioning of the judiciary continues to occupy a large part of the annual report.
“The Commission notes that the implementation of the justice reform continued, resulting in good progress overall,” Soreca said.
However, the EU Ambassador underlined that additional efforts are needed notably to increase the efficiency of the justice system and improve access to justice, by addressing the long timescale of proceedings, increased workload and high backlog of cases, which remains particularly high in appeal and first instance courts.
He acknowledged that the Special Anti-Corruption and Anti-Crime Prosecution Office, SPAK has achieved in the last year concrete results in investigations in a number of high-level cases.
“It is important to continue and develop a solid track in tackling the culture of impunity. The justice authorities will continue to have the European Union on their side,” he stated.
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