Consensus is needed between political parties - National Integration Council, Mazi

The National Council of European Integration convened on the topic: “Implementation of the Action Plan for the opening of negotiations approved by the Assembly with the resolution of dt. 24.09.2020 on "Opening of Albania's Membership Negotiations in the European Union and Approval of the Plan of Measures for Fulfilling the Priorities Defined by the Council of the European Union". The meeting was attended by the President and Vice President of the National Council of European Integration, Rudina Hajdari and Taulant Balla. Albania's Chief Negotiator with the EU has reported on Albania's work for the country's integration into this Union. He said that Albania has met the conditions set before the first government conference. "2020 was a difficult year, the EU was in the process of approving three major dossiers, the agreement on Britain's exit, the approval of the long-term budget, and with the pandemic plague it had a recovery plan. With these 3 large files, a special place was occupied by the enlargement package with Albania and North Macedonia. In 2018, the commission proposed the opening of negotiations, the union's failure to take a positive decision in 2019, was considered by the Italian Prime Minister as a 'historical mistake '. In 2020 the Council decided to open negotiations, after this objective decision, the holding of the first government conference is expected. The political decision to open negotiations was taken on March 25, 2020, the first conference would be held as soon as possible, so it was written, by then the country would have met the specific requirements. Based on the clear division that not all the listed requirements should be met before the first conference, measures were set for setting priorities, according to this perspective the action plan defined the steps to be met, approval of Electoral Reform, according to OSCE-ODIHR, Constitutional Court and Supreme Court, Establishment of SPAK and BKH, strengthening against the fight against Corruption. The March 25 council set other priorities. The concrete work was the uninterrupted continuation of reforms. On June 5, the Political Council completed the draft, an inter-party agreement was reached. The amendments to the Code address the OSCE-ODIHR recommendations. The Constitutional Court has 7 members. The appointment of 3 candidates enabled the functioning of one of the chambers. The other condition is met. SPAK and BKH is fully functional. The above developments meet the condition, the fight against corruption has progressed. Tangible results have been achieved, including cooperation with EU countries," said Mazi. Our results and achievements are significant, the ball remains in our court as long as it is no longer on that of EU. We must put an all-out effort to implement its decision of March 2020 with the approval of the negotiating framework and the approval of the date of the First Intergovernment Conference. I hope that in the presentation next time I believe that I will have the opportunity to give good news", said Mazi.