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Greece is facing pressure from the European Union for the blockade it has decided to impose on Albania on its way to EU integration.
The Greek newspaper 'Kathimerini' has written in a recently published article titled: 'Greece under EU pressure for Albania' that intensive diplomatic consultations are taking place with Greece in order to agree to send a letter on behalf of the European Council to Tirana, in order for Albania to open negotiations for the first three group-chapters.
The relevant discussion is expected to take place at the meeting of permanent representatives in the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday (so today, November 29), after Albania successfully completed the first phase of EU membership negotiations (screening process) last Friday after 14 months of consultations.
It is no secret that Athens has been pressured, writes Kathimerini, citing European diplomatic sources who have told him that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has declared through diplomatic channels that the membership process should not be a bilateral issue. Even, according to a European official, even the Spanish presidency of the EU appears particularly irritated with the position of the Greek side, writes the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Against this background, Greece cannot, said diplomatic sources, continue blocking the letter in question for a long time after the completion of Albania's review process. Because of this, and in case it finally decides to send the aforementioned letter from the European Council, Athens is considering the scope for "blocking" the next stage of the relevant process, which includes a report outlining all the standards for what already or should have been fulfilled by Tirana (permanent membership report), as well as the calling of a relevant intergovernmental conference.
Greece has vowed to block Tirana's aspirations to the EU until the issue of the elected ethnic Greek mayor Fredi Beleri, imprisoned since May, in Albania, emphasizing that his human rights are being violated, is resolved.
In response to the accusations aimed at Greece to make the issue bilateral, State Minister Stavros Papastavrou emphasized that Athens' position is related to the protection of European principles.
"The Beleri issue is deeply European, it is not bilateral. It is about respecting the rule of law," said Papastavrou.
Meanwhile, the Albanian government has categorically declared that the Beleri case is in the hands of justice and will not intervene.
The European Commission has recommended the start of talks on the three group-chapters until the end of 2023. These chapters are among the most important as they deal with democracy, the functioning of democratic institutions and public prosecutions. For the talks to open, the unanimous support of the 27 countries in the European Council of the EU member states is needed.
On November 11, 2023, Greece decided not to join other EU member states in fulfilling the European Commission's request to the European Council for the opening of negotiations for the first three group-chapters.
On November 14, in a joint conference in Berlin with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitotaqis, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke against the bilateralization of the EU enlargement process.
" In the past, I have engaged a lot with different countries to ensure that there is no bilateralization that would hinder the progress of this process, and we are working so that this will continue to be possible in the future," emphasized the social democratic chancellor .
Scholz said that it is necessary to move towards further rapprochement of the countries of the Western Balkans, which were given the promise of membership exactly 20 years ago at the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit.
For his part, Prime Minister Edi Rama has expressed several times that he did not believe that Greece would block Albania
' It would be very unserious that Albania, which is known worldwide as a country completely different from what it was, either by the general international opinion that has become a country that is not missing from any of the top lists of the most preferred tourist destinations, or from the opinion of the international institutions, you saw progress in the report on Albania, to be blocked for an issue that is not at all an issue of the European Union, it is not at all an issue of European integration, it is not at all an issue of Albania's negotiating framework with the European Union, but it is an issue that, from a bilateral point of view, in my opinion, is minor in relation to the important issues of common strategic interest between us and Greece,' declared Rama in a press conference on November 24, 2023 .
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