The Netherlands, against the EU negotiations with Albania and Macedonia
The Netherlands declared its stance against the opening of negotiations for Albania and Macedonia.
The position was clearly expressed in a Dutch Government document provided by Tv Klan on the assessment of the 2018 enlargement package.
The document cites the advances on justice reform, public administration reform, the fight against corruption and organized crime or the protection of human rights.
But the Dutch government says it is not yet convinced to vote for the unconditional recommendation to open negotiations.
“The government still has major concerns over two other priorities; fight against corruption and organized crime. As the Commission rightly points out, the number of sentences remains low. There are also many uncertainties in public procurement procedures. It is essential that Albania continues to work on achieving concrete results, pursue, investigate and punish organized crime and corruption at all levels. As stated above, the Netherlands is not convinced that giving the unconditional recommendation by the European Commission to opening accession negotiations with Albania is the way to go. Albania needs to continue to work on five key reform priorities, in particular the fight against corruption and organized crime. Only when the conditions set by the Commission are met the accession negotiations can be opened”.
/tvklan.al