Beleri: Albania still does not meet the conditions for the EU, there are many unresolved issues

MEP Fredi Beleri said today at the EU-Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee that the authorities in Tirana are facing serious problems related to the rule of law.

According to him, the biggest concerns are in the justice system and in the way court decisions are enforced.

He said that “Albania has open criminal cases in neighboring countries.”

During his remarks, Beleri stressed that when laws are approved, the fact that major problems exist must also be taken into account. He said there are difficulties in the justice sector and in the enforcement of court rulings, while mentioning the justice reform and the vetting process in Albania. According to him, the vetting process has also had weaknesses, since some judges were excluded during this process. He also added that there are other judges against whom legal proceedings have been opened in other EU states, while the country’s former President, according to him, appears to have been affected by this process.

He further declared that in Albania, over the past 12 years, there has not been a single case that has been handled or concluded by the Court.

Beleri went on to say that “There is not even a single case that has been handled or concluded by the Court. This has been the situation over the past 12 years. There are no finalized decisions from the Court. There is a criminal organization, so we have criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking. They have used areas of land that were given by the prime minister. So how can we truly work against organized crime, with all these developments. We have 6,000 people who are in prison. There are people who have died and we do not know where they are buried. As for the separation of powers, if there is no independent judiciary, there is no rule of law and no EU integration. Some say Albania is ready to join. These people either do not see the situation as it currently is, or they have a mistaken image of the situation,” he said.