Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-381"
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"en.20100707.27.3-381"2
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"Mr President, the Liberal Group of this Parliament believes that the Western Balkans are a part of Europe, but this is not always an easy message to relay to voters today. However, we consider the EU to be not only a common market but, most importantly, a community of values. The European Parliament, across the board, stands ready to work with Albania towards these values, but is this extended hand reciprocated? I hope so.
In recent months, the Chairs of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats in the European Parliament have made great efforts to solve the political crisis in Albania through visits and through working with their sister parties. But even these high-level efforts have proven unsuccessful. In May, we had the first Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting. Most of us in the European Parliament began this meeting with much goodwill but by the end, we were discouraged in equal measure by the way in which our counterparts from Albania used the time in Brussels for internal quarrels, damaging Albania’s image.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting underlined a few important things. The highly polarised political climate does not help the Albanian people to get closer to Europe. Democracy means more than the result of elections, putting people into power. It means responsible representation of citizens; not the winner takes all, but seeking constructive compromise between majority and minority participation. We should have talked about the more urgent topics, such as guaranteeing press freedom and a vibrant, independent civil society, as well as safeguarding the rights of minorities such as LGBT people, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities. We should have discussed the need to end corruption and to guarantee transparency, fighting poverty and organised crime, and all this according to due process and the rule of law.
The concerns about the election results also need to be addressed transparently and solved in a consensual way before the next elections take place, so that Albanians can move up on the democratic and European ladder."@en1
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