Negotiations with Albania, EU: The fight against corruption still insufficient

Albania and the European Union held on Tuesday in Luxembourg the second Intergovernmental conference, which also marks the opening of the "Basic" group-chapter in the membership negotiations.

Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, which holds the next presidency, and the Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, considered this moment an important step not only for Albania, but for the future of the enlargement of the Union. .

"Fifteen years of waiting is inappropriate, we need to speed up the enlargement procedure now," said the Hungarian minister, speaking during a joint conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Prime Minister Rama described this moment as "a historic cornerstone in the joint journey towards European reunification" and said that this is the only plan for Albania's future. Answering journalists' questions, Rama announced the ambition to complete the process by 2030.

The Albanian government requests accelerated integration for several chapters, which includes the function of democratic institutions; reform in Public Administration; Judiciary and Fundamental Rights; Justice, Freedom and Security as well as Public Procurement.

But according to the negotiating position of the European Union, which was made public, Albania still has a lot of work to do in relation to the fight against corruption, media freedom or ownership registration and transparency. The EU also underlines that the performance of the Albanian economy has was "below potential" and convergence, i.e. the approach of Albania's economic level to the EU average, is "slow".

The biggest criticism relates to the seemingly most significant development of recent years, the fight against high-level corruption, with several ministers and two dozen senior officials charged or convicted, including a former deputy prime minister and a former prime minister. . While these developments seem great compared to almost zero convictions before, for Brussels officials the result is no more than encouraging, but still "insufficient".

"The EU notes as positive some final convictions for corruption charges against senior officials," the EU's negotiating position says. "The EU nevertheless underlines that corruption is pervasive in most areas of public life and business, including all branches of central and local government and institutions, and this remains an area of ​​serious concern," the document further reads.

"The EU also notes that anti-corruption measures have generally had limited impact so far in the sectors most at risk of corruption."

Albania undertook the Justice Reform in 2016 and since then, the success achieved in cleaning up the system through the vetting process and the first cases of accusations and convictions for corruption by the Special Structure Against Organized Crime and Corruption has served as a key argument for Albania's progress in achieving the criteria required for membership. But unlike this, the EU seems to have asked the question whether or not the success so far is enough to conclude that corruption is being fought properly and has come to the conclusion that the real impact has been "limited".

In addition to the general assessment of the state of corruption, the EU calls especially for mortgages to "take sound measures against corruption" and to ensure that requests are fully handled within the 45-day legal deadline. The document notes that the lack of property rights in the country and difficulties in registering properties "continue to limit the efficient functioning of the market economy".

Big problems with freedom of expression

The second point in the negotiating position where Albania has received particularly strong criticism has to do with freedom of expression. In any case, she notes at this point as a "positive fact" that Albania has expressed its willingness to undertake deep reforms in the legal and regulatory framework. Albania, according to the EU, should "strengthen the transparency of media ownership, media pluralism and editorial independence, strengthen the transparency of media financing from private and state sources and strengthen the autonomy of the media regulator and the independence of the public broadcaster" .

Albania has a television market dominated by a few operators, who have multiple interests with the government, including public-private partnership contracts or public procurement, while the nature of ownership in these televisions, usually with one owner or under the ownership of a family, reduces the possibility of having an editorial staff in which editorial decisions are made based on the principles of independent journalism and not on the interests of the owner.

"The EU notes that the atmosphere of verbal and physical attacks, smear campaigns and strategic lawsuits against public participation targeting journalists has not improved and remains a problem to be addressed," the document says. "The EU underlines the importance for Albania to completely abolish the criminal provisions for insult and defamation and to align the civil aspects of defamation with European standards," the document states. Reporter.al