TIRANA, March 12 /ATA/ The National Council for European Integration (NCEI) in cooperation with the European Movement in Albania (EMA), held on Tuesday in Tirana the regional meeting entitled: The growth plan for the Western Balkans and its impact on the acceleration of the reforms of the rule of law.
The chairperson of NCEI, Jorida Tabaku, in her opening remarks, described the new Growth Plan and the available funds as a luxury not to be missed.
“The new Growth Plan and the available funds are a luxury not to be missed, to finance reforms that have not happened until now. The new Growth Plan places a certain emphasis on increasing economic integration, on the single regional market, the acceleration of some reforms that have been lacking in the Western Balkans until now, and this is accompanied with an increase in financial assistance to countries, ” said Tabaku.
The growth plan of 6 billion euros, according to her, is an opportunity that the governments of the Western Balkans should not miss to draw up economic reform plans that will focus on 7 areas.
Tabaku assessed as positive the increased role of the Parliament in the integration process.
“We are all aware that the monitoring of independent institutions, how they fulfill their obligations in the framework of the EU accession process should be seen as part of continuous communication between the government and the Parliament. Therefore, the new law “On the Parliament” has given more functions to the Parliament, functions which the government can never perform, as they belong to the Parliament and must be carried out through the NCEI and the Commission for European Affairs, which I believe will be functional in the days to come. Check and balance is the main element that the integration process and the Parliament must guarantee,” said Tabaku.
She called on the government to draw up economic reforms as part of the Growth Plan.
“I very much hope that in the future we will have the opportunity to discuss in more detail the economic reforms approved by the government and the plan of the Parliament on the laws that will be passed, related to these economic reforms and what role we will play all together in this process, I mean the political parties, as each one has contributed to this process and I hope it will be like that,” Tabaku said.
Furthermore, Tabaku said that the Growth Plan also focuses on regional integration.
“We aspired to integrate into the EU and we forgot to integrate into the region and the growth plan reminds us once again of the potential that we have, the countries of the Western Balkans have to integrate together,” she said.
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