Albania’s EU future in doubt as Dutch parliament votes to veto accession talks

Albania’s EU future in doubt as Dutch parliament votes to veto accession talks
/ Rainer Ebert
By Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje June 24, 2018

The Dutch parliament has blocked the launch of EU accession negotiations with Albania, saying the Balkan country has failed to implement justice reforms, making it unclear when Tirana will get a firm date to open EU accession negotiations. 

The European Council is due to decide on June 28-29 whether to start accession talks with EU candidate countries Albania and Macedonia based on progress made in the countries and their fulfilment of obligations set by the bloc. Albania has been a candidate country since 2014 and Macedonia since 2005.

However, the Dutch parliament on June 21 decided not to support the launch of EU accession talks with Albania after it adopted a motion filed by several MPs, stating that Albania had not fulfilled five key priorities that it must achieve in order to obtain a date for the start of EU talks.

“There is no track record in the legal reform, tackling corruption and crime,” according to the motion.

Albania's main opposition Democratic Party recently said it does not believe that the country will obtain a date to launch EU accession negotiations at the end of June and warned that after the upcoming European Council meeting it will take "firm political action".

At the same time the Netherlands will give the green light for Macedonia to start EU negotiations after the country’s parliament ratified the historic agreement with Greece on solving the name dispute, which sets a new name for the country — Republic of North Macedonia.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias recently said he will inform the EU and Nato that Greece is lifting its objections following the ratification of the agreement.

The name issue has so far blocked Macedonia’s aspirations to join the EU and Nato, due to the Greek objection to the name of the country as it has a province in the north with the same name.

However, according to Greek daily Kathimerini, France is another opponent of EU enlargement. It claimed that France had “completely rejected Albania’s candidacy”, and added that Paris believes that Macedonia’s expected invitation to join Nato is “an adequate reward for now”. 

Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg expressed skepticism in a letter as to whether Macedonia and Albania had made enough progress to launch accession talks but later withdrew their reservations, according to the Greek daily.

German lawmakers supported talks with Macedonia but under strict conditions.

However, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said recently he expects that the France will soften its stance and will allow Macedonia to obtain a date. Macedonia also expects to be invited to join Nato at the Alliance summit in July.

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