International

Albania is clearly not ready for candidate membership of the EU, according to SP Member of Parliament and European affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel. Van Bommel is urging the government not to cast its vote in the Council of Ministers in favour of agreeing to a European Commission request to establish an enquiry into Albania’s possible accession.

Van Bommel: “In the EU such an enquiry represents a starting signal for a one-way trip to accession. The pressure for enlargement is enormous, and undiminished. In the case of Romania and of Bulgaria we can see that the majority in the EU did not take their own accession criteria seriously. The government should nip this in the bud."

Albania, simply on the basis of rule of law and that of economic development, is clearly a very long way from fulfilling the minimum conditions for membership. This has not stopped them from applying, which they did at the beginning of the year. “In the long term, perhaps, membership would be on the cards, but not for now. I call on the cabinet to stick to its guns on this and not to yield to pressure from other countries.”