BRUSSELS – The draft reports on Albania, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were presented to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) today. The documents stress that the rule of law remains a burning issue in these countries, and call on the authorities to establish more efficient public administration. Referring to the current situation in BiH, several MEPs underline “the deeply worrying secessionist tendencies” of the officials in the Republika Srpska entity.
Andreas Schieder (S&D), the EP’s Rapporteur for Albania, noted that the country was advancing well on its path towards the EU, which was reflected by the fact that Claster 1 and Claster 6 were opened last year, but that “several challenges still need to be addressed to achieve the ambitious, yet realistic, goal to be ready for the EU by 2030”.
According to Schieder, Albania has made a significant progress on the rule of law and democracy, but there are key challenges which are persisting, including: internal political polarization, anti-corruption reforms, election reform, media independence, and the environmental protection.
Presenting a draft report on North Macedonia, Thomas Waitz (Greens/EFA), the EP’s Rapporteur for the country, mentioned the disastrous tragedy in Kočani and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He added that it seemed that “corruption has been involved”.
Waitz underlined that the constitutional changes were the key preconditions for “unlocking” the EU accession process of North Macedonia.
“The actual start of the accession talks will take place as soon as the constitutional changes are made, which are on the table, and imply the inclusion of several ethnic minorities into the Constitution”, Thomas Waitz said.
Waitz added that the other challenges are related to the rule of law reforms, the establishment of merit-based public administration, and further strengthening of the media.
Ondřej Kolář (EPP), the EP’s Rapporteur for Bosnia and Herzegovina, noted that the escalation of the crisis in the country was “really deep” and that all eyes should be on BiH.
“BiH will have to fulfil 14 key priorities in order to ensure the functional democratic state, equal opportunities for people, public administration efficiency, and economic growth”, Kolář stressed.
In addition, he condemned the “repeated use of inflammatory rhetoric and the adoption of secessionist laws and policies by the leadership of RS entity”. According to Kolář, “such actions undermine BiH and are incompatible with its EU accession process”.