Brussels, 19/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - Senior EU officials warned Albania's feuding political parties on Tuesday 19 July to resume their dialogue and reform the Balkan state's electoral system, if Tirana wants to keep its European Union membership ambitions on track. “It is time for political forces in Albania to overcome the political stalemate and return to a level of political dialogue that would allow the proper functioning of key democratic institutions, notably the parliament”, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said in a statement. The parties have been disputing the results of elections for Tirana mayor in May, including through legal challenges, and EU officials have been urging them for months to resolve their differences. “The elections in Tirana were not good as they demonstrated beyond doubt that the electoral framework needs to be reformed”, Ashton and Fule said in a statement, following a Stabilisation and Association Council meeting with Albanian officials in Brussels. They urged all political parties to support any future opinion of the Venice Commission - the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters - on how to avoid such election problems in the future.
In a press release, the EU noted that Tirana was generally on track in its accession preparations and had achieved reasonable economic stability. It said that Albania “would be in a position to take on the obligations of membership in the medium term in most of the acquis fields”, once it had harmonised its legislation with that of the EU. But the EU urged Tirana to continue to work hard to address serious problems of corruption, and fulfil its commitments in 12 key areas defined by the parties. Albanian Foreign Minister Edmond Haxhinas to told reporters that his country still hopes to win membership candidacy status by the end of the year. (LoC)