 Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you very much for the invitation and the opportunity to Talk to you today about Albania. I think This is a timely discussion to have Given that in my opinion Albania is still at the crossroads from which the country could Finally advance on the track towards the European Union or else it could go Back again in the direction of a dead end realistically speaking, I think it could go either way the outcome at present is mostly in the hands of the of Albania especially of the two major political parties in Albania that is the Democratic Party led by Sally Berisha and the Socialist Party led by Eddie Rama whose fierce personal Power struggle has become a permanent and problematic Characteristic of the social economic and political life in Albania ever since the fall of communism in the early 1990s On the one hand there are signs to suggest that Albania could succeed in getting its house in order and catching up on the already sizable reform agenda to give you some examples of Such signs for one since November 2011 the two main Albanian political parties have resumed Political dialogue within parliamentary structures after a prolonged standoff that dates back to the June 2009 general elections when the Socialist opposition Contested the Democrats victory and embarked on a boycott of parliament Since November 2011 the two main political parties have traded this sort of no-talk policy with a joint commitment to the much needed reform process That was effectively paralyzed for almost two years During the political crisis Obstructing also Albania's membership bit Now of course Having the two main political parties returned to work is important given that as has already been mentioned Albania has already failed twice to receive recommendation for Candidate status by the European Commission both in 2010 and 2011 precisely because of its poor record on reforms Moreover this bipartisan efforts at reconciliation between government and opposition have been accompanied by a new vocabulary including words that were previously Unused such as dialogue Consensus debate inclusive talks and references to the EU membership objective two years ago Links between the national reform agenda and the European integration imperatives could rarely be found controversy in transigence intolerant politics the exclusion of other National political parties and relevant stakeholders from decision-maker was rather the the norm And not was it rather than the exception and protests or violence were also Not uncommon remember the four people who were killed At an anti-government rally in January 2011 or the demonstrations relating to the Tirana mayoral elections in May 2011 so the change in rhetoric is also an encouraging development last but not least since the political agreement between the Socialists and Democrats In November 2011 the country has been very keen to demonstrate that it means business and that it is able to produce visible results For instance on March 21st Albania government has adopted with the active involvement of the parliament an action plan that specifies the measures time frames Resources and responsible National institutions that will be used to address the European Commission's 12 key priorities for the country You may recall that in November 2010 As has already been said the Commission presented Albania with a to-do list of 12 crucial reforms Including the need to ensure the proper functioning of parliament to appoint an ombudsman reform and the electoral law and public administration Strengthen the fight against organized crime and corruption and reinforce the protection of human and minority rights Implementing these provisions became the sine qua non condition for any potential moves forward by Albania towards EU membership To give you an idea of where we stand the country has adopted Last September the ombudsman in a consensual consensual and transparent way However, for the second part of this priority They have been neither hearings nor voting in the parliament for the appointment of constitutional and high court judges it is a speculation, but perhaps Albania is waiting to swearing the new president at the end of July of this July in order to cross out this point as It is the job of the president to to make such appointments Albania has also ticked off from the list the priority related to the adoption of the of any pending laws requiring a reinforced majority The last pending legislative act Was the one on administrative courts and it went smoothly through the parliament on three may on third May this year Likewise, the country has made headway on the electoral reform and the review of the parliament's rules of procedures As well as in the area of rule of law and fundamental rights The action plan is otherwise helping Albania to stay focused on what when and how it needs to be done Additionally, as I have just Mentioned Albania has managed to elect its new president earlier this month in Albania The president is elected by the parliament in a process that Extends over five rounds for a total of five weeks in the first three rounds the Winner must receive a three-four fifth majority vote If the parliament is unable to elected a candidate within the first three rounds Then it can be elected in the next two rounds by a simple major majority At the moment that means 71 out of 140 Votes possible if the five rounds fail to produce a president Then national elections must be held within 45 days given the country's history with elections all the electoral contests in in Albania since 1991 fell short of meeting high international standards the recent presidential elections were somewhat of a test In the end the process saw for a change the two main political parties meet in order to to talk to each other There was no violence or major conflict and the outcome was the election of Buzhar Nishani Former minister of interior and minister of defense who was put forward by the Democrats and was elected by a majority vote In the fourth round, I think he received the 73 votes All these are of course some small baby steps in the right direction, but with perseverance and courage at the level of the Domestic political elite these baby steps have the potential to to become a leap forward in in the integration process Having said that on the other hand, it is quite clear that the European Commission Will insist on Albania achieving a critical mass of concrete results across all 12 key priorities beyond the mere political will or work in progress and This will only be possible if the two main Albanian political parties Shed their backwards habits and behavior Will they raise up to the challenge? Well, if they don't Albania's development and progress on the European path will remain hostage to to these parties all the antics For still some come to some time to come The time frame is also an issue the country is set to to hold them general elections in June next year and as everywhere else elections can turn out to be quite divisive events and not a particularly opportune moment to undertake Substantial reforms with long-term payoffs as such the momentum created by this recent positive developments in Albania should be harnessed now before the campaign for the 2013 general elections kicks off and Preferably in time for the publication of the next Commission progress report this autumn in other words concrete and Substantial reforms must happen soon Bearing also in mind that the Parliament will go on holidays over the summer the next few months could thus Somewhat answer the question of your event establishing if paralysis and all progress Will define the EU Albania relations for the foreseeable future as mentioned above for several priorities a lot of the work has already been done and This work must now be completed a case in point is the electoral and parliamentary reforms both of which were actually supposed to To be concluded before the start of the presidential elections. I think the deadline was 24th May However, on the electoral reform the ad hoc committee was not able to reach agreement on two issues the first refers to the administration of the electoral process with the government and opposition disagreeing on on the Chairperson of this committee whether it should be an independent non-political person Or otherwise and the second issue relates to the appeal process or the right of a minority of the members of this Central electoral committee to initiate an audit in case of alleged fraud Here the Democrats and socialists disagree on the number of members that can call For an open for the opening of the ballot or for recounting of the votes and so on in case they suspect full plane Similarly the reform concerning the parliament's rules of procedures and also got stuck onto issues The first was the speaking time where with the opposition Wanting to limit the speaking time for the prime minister and the cabinet ministers in order to bring it on a more equal footing with the other MPs with the time allotted or Consented to the other MPs and the second Problematic issue is the secrecy of the votes the bone of contention here being that the ruling coalition and the Speaker of the parliament Can decide when the votes should be closed or open and of course This is a situation which the opposition sees as leaving too much room for interpretation and unpredictability That's the remaining hurdles on on these two Reforms are not Exactly politically sensitive and are not necessarily of interest to the smaller political parties But hinge once again on the ability of the two main political parties to cooperate across party lines In the interest of the country rather than falling over again into the trap of incessant personal battles the successful completion of these Reforms would not only score Albania hard points in preparation for for this autumn But it could also help to demonstrate that the Albanian political class is becoming more mature especially since the Presidency of presidential elections where according to some commentators a lost opportunity to prove just that In that case although the the two main political parties immediately initially pledged to elect a consensual president in the end they failed to To cooperate on the task the socialists did not officially put forward any candidate and Used the the consultations that were held with the Democrats to pose conditions on issues that were not directly related to the negotiations over a candidate in their turn the Barisha team Delayed the start of the consultations with Rama until after the Chicago summit which was a few days after the first round of Elections and this despite the the call of the socialists leader for for an earlier meeting now This is it. We have a president that it is not a president Elected consensually, but rather the result of a majority vote in the parliament in which the socialists did not even Participate at this point. We hope that That he will put himself outside political influence and play a constructive role especially since he was one of the few ministers in Barisha's cabinet who did not engage in high-level political confrontation and generally try to keep a Low profile in in his activity I guess we could get a better sense of his contribution Based on how he will behave in September October in case the two main political parties Do not manage to agree on the critical mass of reforms until then but hopefully we will not get into that situation Of course Apart from this more parliament related than deliverables the EU is also quite resolute about What can be called good governance criteria? Such as maintaining the rule of law an independent judiciary protection of human and minority rights effective and efficient public administration and the fight against corruption and organized crime all of these Some are reflected primarily in the second part of the commission's list of priorities And such issues have been increasingly highlighted by the EU In its approach towards the Balkans enlargement Croatia was the first to go through this rigorous course and All the other aspirant countries in the region will have to to follow suit As the case of the big bank enlargement countries Or the experience of Croatia with chapters 23 and 24 demonstrates These are all difficult areas of reforms which cannot be effectively addressed within a Couple of months time Moreover the EU requires the aspirant countries to to demonstrate a solid track record in in these fields That's Albania which faces a significant shortcomings with regards to to the independence Transparency and accountability of the judicial system as well as with regard to the fight against organized crime and corruption To mention just a few of the problems Has still a lot of work to do and a long way to go Far beyond the next few months Before it can fulfill the commission's priorities in this respect However, there are a series of specific outputs Which Albania could provide by September with reference to these issues in order to improve its chances of moving forward on the EU track I could mention for example the three reforms items These are the the revision first the revision of the legal framework on high-level Public officials and judges concerning their unlimited immunity this is the most visible part of the anti-corruption priority and that seems to Already a general understanding between the two major political parties in Albania on the substance Of the amendments needed here. They actually held consultations on this topic earlier this year But no result was reached because The constitution would need to to be changed workshops seeking to draft the legal amendments who have been postponed several times and the outcome Draft law will have to be adopted by three-fifths majority whenever it is ready The second reform item could be the high court law This falls within the efforts to strengthen the rule of law and reform the judiciary a final draft I think it's not Yet written or produced and its adoption Will require again three-fifths majority in parliament Finally the the third item I wanted to mention to you is the civil service law This is needed in the in the reform of the public administration Draft already exists and has been the result of broad-based consultations But will need to be adopted and again as all has the previous two reforms will require three-fifths majority vote So these are some concrete issues that Albania could do until the autumn and it remains to be seen now whether It will address them in in due time but apart from from all these priorities one thing that I want to emphasize and Which I hope comes through my presentation is that Albania's problem is first and foremost the problem of domestic political Domestic politics and more generally a problem with the quality of democracy bitter party competition at the core of the Albanian executive the inability of the ruling Political elites to cooperate across party lines and to see beyond their own Political interest has led to persistent failures to create an agency for reform and Continuous to to risk impairing Albania's EU prospects and this occurs also also because the main Albanian political parties can rule unchecked and Unsanctioned by by the people and by civil society The popular leverage remains too weak for the Albanian elites to to be held responsible Too weak to have an impact on decision-making Or to create expectations about policy outcomes and elite behavior in other words Democratic congruence between elites and and masses is is missing in this country to fix that Political elites would have to abide by the rule of law and would have to take ownership of the reform agenda But at the same time people would have to place demands on their political leaders to respect Existing laws and perform according to high democratic standards Until that happens the risk of stalling or rolling back on important achievements attained over the past two decades Will always be there even if Albania pulls it off this time and Shows a series of concrete results that somehow satisfy the Commission. This is why I think that In parallel to all these efforts to fulfill the Commission's Priorities Albania should strive and the EU should push Also for substantive aspects of democracy that seek to strengthen bottom-up channels of Social accountability and civic involvement in policymaking This have received less attention from the EU so far in the notoriously Elite-driven process of EU integration and more should be done To address spending issues that prevent for instance civil society organizations or media actors From being able and capable really to influence the government and decision-making Likewise the role of the Albanian parliament as a direct representative of of the people should be strengthened in the Legislative process for instance the the parliamentary reform currently under discussion in Albania Cannot be seen as the ultimate reform step because it doesn't go it far enough In strengthening for instance the oversight Function of the parliament or the openness in in in accomplishing an open parliament to interest groups in society Also the emphasis on regional cooperation needs to intensify it is of course Not easy to imagine proactive policies aimed at regional cooperation when domestic politics are polarized and contested and this is not only the case in Albania But regional cooperation remains fundamental as demonstrated for instance in the results achieved in fighting collectively organized crime Or in exchanging and learning best practices across a variety of fields in the region and Albania certainly has also has certain advantages over other countries in the regions in the region which face a far greater internal and external complexities Albania does not have border disputes does not face problems with ethnic minorities Domestically and has a basis to build bridges with the other countries In the region given that many Albanians live abroad In the vicinity, I mean in Kosovo 95% of the population is Albanian The same as some 25% in the former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia 5% in Montenegro and and so on in fact, I read an interesting Proposal the other day in the press Encouraging Albania Kosovo Macedonia and Montenegro to to build a new and permanent cooperation structure aimed at boosting economic and political relations between these countries This would be a Balkan banal type of of cooperation that would create a market for With some eight million people with with free movement of goods services capital people and Would have immediate benefits instead of of waiting for for EU accession But since I I don't want to take too long to conclude my presentation. I think We should not forget in the end that Albania search for EU membership is happening against the background of an increasingly difficult economic Crisis, which is not only undermining the European Project, but it is also affecting the the the way the European Union interacts With with the with the Balkans including Albania and it it affects what can realistically be expected from the EU The past couple of years have seen many examples in which EU member states states had interfered in the process and raised obstacles and not always for reasons which had a lot to do with the issue at hand Thus although the EU remains committed to enlargement To the Balkans and even if Albania will make progress on priorities and on required reforms the member states appetite for enlargement when They are currently more preoccupied with internal domestic affairs Needs to be factored into the prospects of whether Albania will move forward and and when The outcome of today's General Affairs Council meeting Could offer a taste of Of the mood among member states and and and and hopefully and it's a positive sign On this note I think the only thing we can hope for is that Albania does its outmost to prevent losing another year or more and That in turn the the EU tries very hard not to get cold feet Thank you very much. I look forward to to your questions