FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Rama is gathering the group on Monday to talk about integration, at a time when the process remains blocked in Brussels and the IBAR report is not passed. While the prime minister is trying to impose an optimistic narrative, the meeting is a test for critical voices within the party, who have so far spoken outside official forums, but not in front of him...
Monday at 11:00 is not just a routine meeting at the Brigades Palace. Edi Rama has called the Socialist Party parliamentary group to talk about European integration, a topic that he himself placed at the center of his recent campaign with the promise of membership in the European Union by 2030. Today, faced with a process that is not moving at the announced pace, this meeting takes on more the appearance of an exercise in persuasion than a real report.
At the table will be Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha and Chief Negotiator Majlinda Dhuka, who will report mainly on Chapter 24, justice, freedom and security. This is where the crux lies. According to the European Union's methodology, chapters 23 and 24 constitute the foundations of the entire process and without a positive assessment in these areas, no other chapter is closed. IBAR, the European Commission's report that measures progress in these two chapters, remains unclosed.
The facts emerging from Brussels do not match Tirana's optimistic tone. On April 1 and April 7, at the meetings of the enlargement working group, COELA, representatives of the member states raised concrete issues that jeopardize the advancement of the negotiations. The EU Council itself confirms that the discussions are at a preliminary stage and that several more rounds will be needed before a common position is reached. This means that the process is not in a closing phase, as promised for 2027, but in an open negotiation cycle.
Against this backdrop, the Albanian government's stances have produced the opposite effect. The refusal to lift the immunity of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku and the public attacks on SPAK have raised serious doubts about the functioning of the rule of law. It is precisely these elements that weigh directly on IBAR's assessment.
Meanwhile, the parallel with Montenegro makes the contrast even more striking. In Brussels, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, COREPER, has approved the establishment of a working group to prepare the accession agreement for Podgorica. Albania, at the same time, remains in the phase of discussions on an interim report.
This is where the internal political dimension comes in. The March 28 meeting in the same environment marked strong clashes between Elisa Spiropali and Edi Rama. That clash was not an isolated episode, but a symptom of a tension that has been circulating in the PS for some time. Critical voices exist, but they rarely pass from social networks to closed tables.
Elisa Spiropali has expressed public reservations about developments in the party, but has not articulated them in official forums. Erion Braçe has followed the same line, with sporadic criticism and a cautious profile within the structures. This is a model that is not new. The centralized control of the party and the lack of real debate forums have been evident for years, ever since the parallel structures were abolished and any alternative voice was relegated to the periphery.
This Monday will show whether these voices will remain in the status of peripheral comments or will they move into a direct confrontation. The question is simple: will what is said outside the hall be articulated inside?
Because in the meantime, outside the hall, the facts have begun to create another narrative. A process that does not close chapters, a report that does not pass, a Brussels that requires time and a government that requires trust. In the midst of all this, the meeting at the Brigades Palace risks remaining a scene where reality is negotiated with words, but does not change with them. /Pamphlet
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