Brussels, 27/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 October the European Commission held a guideline debate to prepare its main annual “enlargement package” to be published on 9 November, comprising: - the “opinions” of the Commission on the accession application is of Albania and Montenegro; - the 2010 progress reports for the candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey and FYROM) and potential candidates (Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo); - a “strategic” paper on the enlargement policy.
The commissioners' debate focused mainly on the two opinions (Albania and Montenegro) and on Kosovo and Turkey (see also other article). As regards the opinions, “the betting is still open, there are several options on the table”, we have been told by well-informed sources. There is much, indeed, to indicate that the Commission's opinion of Albania could be negative, notably due to the total lack of political cooperation between the government and the opposition. This is not a “functioning democracy”, our sources explain. “Sometimes with certain countries, it is better to make progress in the process (of European integration), in order to have some leverage with them to ensure that they carry out reforms required. That was the case with Serbia, for instance. Sometimes, with other countries, you have to do the opposite”, our sources state. This approach could also be applied, at least partially, to Montenegro. As for Kosovo, the Commission is planning to put forward a number of practical options to move forward in the European integration of this country, which is not even recognised by five of the 27 member states. These proposals will be “neutral from the point of view of the status” and will aim in particular to improve the situation of the Kosovar citizens, for example by dint of positive measures in the field of trade or visas. Commissioner Füle would like the talks on these issues, which will certainly take a good deal of time, to be able to start as soon as the EU27 have a common position on the status of Kosovo. (H.B./transl.fl)