EU to recommend conditional accession talks for Albania in November

The European Commission is expected to recommend ‘conditional’ opening of accession talks for EU membership for Albania during its 9th November presentation to AFET which will have to be confirmed by the Heads of States meeting in their 15-16 December European Council meeting.

An undisclosed source from the European Parliament in Brussels has told Tirana Echo that the European Commission is expected to recommend a ‘conditional’ opening of accession talks with Albania during its presentation of the enlargement package to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on November 9th.

The cautious positive recommendation by Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn will be given on the basis that Albania has demonstrated substantial progress in its decriminalization and justice reform crucial packages, while it will condition the opening of membership talks on the credible implementation of the constitutional justice package and will ask the Albanian government to show credible proof that it is serious in its engagements to fight endemic corruption and organized crime.

Although the final list of conditions is not yet disclosed, experts expect that the Commission will take into account the latest surge in cannabis cultivation across Albania and upcoming general and presidential elections in June 2017, which may add to the existing skepticism of EU member states when they take the Commission’s recommendations into account for a final decision in December.

This means that while the Balkan country may get a green light by the Council in December, official membership accession talks may not begin until the end of 2017, using the June elections as the reason to postpone any chapters being opened for discussion.

During a recent interview, MEP Eduard Kukan said that “the drugs issue is a huge problem for Albania and that its government should show a ruthless approach to this problem”.

“If you bring concrete results, it would help. Time is very important now and after so much energy devoted to the approval of the justice reform, it would be good for this process to finalize and begin implementation.” MEP Kukan said, urging Albania’s authorities to speed up their efforts before the December decision.

In June 2014 the Council granted Albania the candidate status for EU membership amid huge skepticism by old member states such as the Netherlands, UK, Germany and France who were not convinced that Albania was serious in fighting widespread corruption and organized crime. With German and French elections coming up next year and with a highly apathetic European electorate towards the EU and its enlargement, a postponed decision from the Council for next year would be highly negative for the whole integration process of the Western Balkans.

The European Council is the highest EU body consisting of the heads of state or government of the member states, together with its President Donald Tusk and the President of the Commission Jean-Claude Junker. They are scheduled to meet on December 15-16 to discuss various annual priorities, among which the Commission’s recommendations and the enlargement package, where Albania is expected to be a hot topic of discussion.