Athens sends new message to Tirana
There is currently no mention of Albania as a European Union candidate country in the Enlargement chapter of the latest draft of the forthcoming European Council, which starts Thursday.
The development is related to the issue of detained ethnic Greek mayor Fredi Beleri, especially after the Special Court of Tirana rejected on Monday his plea for a limited leave of absence to be sworn in as mayor of Himare.
Athens had warned in good time of consequences in the case of there being any deviation from the very clear conditions set out and linked to respect for the rule of law.
Greece has already submitted a written statement which accompanied the European Council’s letter on the opening of negotiations with Albania, setting three basic conditions for the promotion of Tirana’s accession. These are the swearing-in of Beleri, his fair trial and respect for the presumption of innocence.
Undoubtedly, the Greek side will continue consultations in the hours leading up to Thursday’s summit regarding the wording of the final conclusions on Albania.
However, it should be emphasized that references to Serbia and Montenegro are also absent from the enlargement chapter. This may be due to specific objections raised by several member-states and the Commission regarding Serbia’s non-alignment with the EU’s security and foreign policy policies, in particular on the issue of Russian sanctions for the war in Ukraine. In the case of Montenegro, the required reforms have not been implemented over the last year due to the unstable political situation in the country.
The enlargement chapter includes references in separate paragraphs to other candidate countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia). The reference to North Macedonia is particularly interesting, at a time when that of Albania is missing, as the candidacy of the two countries is considered to be linked.
