MEP Knut Fleckenstein has declared that accession talks in EU for Albania need to be opened this year.

MEP Knut Fleckenstein has declared that accession talks in EU for Albania need to be opened this year. EU Ambassador Vlahutin confirms the Five Key Priorities to open negotiations with Albania. The recommendation for the opening of the negotiations depends on credible and tangible progress in the implementation of the judicial reform, especially the vetting. MEP Knut Fleckenstein has declared that accession talks with Albania need to be opened this year. Meanwhile, Ambassador Romana Vlahutin has finally acknowledged in public what her colleagues in Brussels and Strasbourg have tried to communicate to Albania for months. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Ambassador Vlahutin declared: “You know that we never speak about a precise timeline, but about what should be done for Albania has been explained in the decision of the European Commission. The recommendation for the opening of the negotiations depends on credible and tangible progress in the implementation of the judicial reform, especially the vetting of the judges as well as the five key priorities: the battle against corruption, organized crime, the empowerment of the judiciary, public administration, and the protection of human rights, including the Roma and anti-discrimination policies, as well as the implementation of property rights”. This is the first time that Ambassador Vlahutin takes away any uncertainty about the conditionality of the EU accession process for Albania. In December 2016 she still remained vague, suggesting that “the five priorities will continue to remain with us until the end. So there needs to progress, a little bit, but apparent.” After election process Prime Minister Edi Rama declared: “Albania has today received a positive recommendation for the opening of the EU accession negotiations without conditions and only with the understanding, quite naturally, that until the moment we start working at the negotiation table, the implementation of the judicial reforms continues uninterruptedly ”. In a last statement of EU member states noted clearly the conditionality of the opening of EU accession talks with emphasized.