Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-045"
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"en.20060906.5.3-045"2
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".
Madam President, on behalf of my group, I should like to thank our rapporteur, Mr Ilves, for the work he has done. Albania is a difficult, complicated country, and I think that he is correct in his analysis of it and the conclusions he has drawn. We too welcome the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and will vote in favour of it here today.
The agreement reflects how much has been achieved with sheer perseverance, and opens the way to EU candidate membership on the basis of the agreements that were made in Thessaloniki. Our group will continue to support Albania in the steps it will have to take as it moves towards European integration.
Until the early 1990s, Albania was the most isolationist country of the European continent. By signing this agreement, it joins with various other Balkan countries that have made courageous strides over the past year. Croatia is now negotiating with the EU about membership; Macedonia has received candidate-member status and clear progress has also been made with regard to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
We, as a group, did briefly consider asking for deferral of vote on this agreement, as a means of bringing some pressure to bear on the authorities in Albania and getting them to ensure that the forthcoming local elections run smoothly, but we think you can also turn the argument around, by saying that signing this agreement, Parliament's approval of it, spurs all parties in Albania on to behave properly and to continue on the road towards political and economic reforms, in respect of which we can work with the criteria we used in other countries that worked on a future within the European Union, particularly, of course, the first Copenhagen criterion.
We should, however, not lose sight of the fact that there is still a long way to go. This signing does not mean that the Albanian Government, which has presented the concluding of this agreement as an important victory, can rest on its laurels, and I hope that people in Albania are aware of this.
If we consider the Copenhagen criteria, the ultimate benchmark for EU membership, the Albanian Government should be alerted to a number of things. I have already mentioned the local elections, which, we assume, everyone will keep free and fair. We will ensure that they are, while also hoping that the Commission and the Council will keep an eye on things.
Secondly, I should like to comment on the situation in the media. Free and independent media are indispensable for a transparent and robust democracy. It is clearly up to a country’s government to make sure that those are in place, but we have to establish that the media are under pressure to some extent, partly due to the proposed change to the Act on electronic media.
There are also some question marks surrounding the judiciary’s independence. Those are all issues which the European Union will need to monitor closely, even after the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
Finally, we have perceived a degree of political polarisation in that country that concerns us. That is not new, but we still cannot see any closure in that respect. We would therefore like to urge the government and opposition to adopt a mainly pragmatic and constructive approach, for only then can Albania fully utilise the scope which this agreement offers."@en1
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