At a joint news conference from Brussels with PM Edi Rama and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice President of the Commission, Josep Borrell, Várhelyi said that Albania has delivered on all the criteria.

“Albania is a country which, not only suffered from the pandemic, but before the pandemic had to cope with the impact of a devastating earthquake, so the challenges are unprecedented in Albania and are probably more in number than elsewhere in the region. And they continue to be so today. And today we found that Albania has yielded results and delivered on the promises it has made and met the criteria for the First Intergovernmental Conference. ”

“This is a very important thing and we must say this to give a very clear signal that not only Albania has been able to do this, but has also given results either in the rule of law or in other areas. So let’s convey this message about the rule of law, about justice reform. These were, of course, the key issues,” said Varhelyi.

“I want to repeat what has been said in this joint assessment that in the vetting process, since it is going very well in tandem with the Constitutional Court, with the High Court, we have already reached where we need to be. So, the assessment that we are giving to the EU member states is that everything has already been met for the First Intergovernmental Conference, ie all the criteria,” said Varhelyi.
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