On the evening of Friday 5 June, Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, and Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, congratulated all of the parties involved in reaching the “important” political agreement on electoral reform in Albania earlier that day (see EUROPE 12497/25).
The agreement covers twelve issues, including electronic identification, the electoral college, the electoral commission and depoliticisation.
In a statement, Borrell and Várhelyi said: “We welcome the inclusive process and commend the political willingness to reach consensus”. They added that this was an “important achievement” that will benefit the citizens of Albania.
They believe that, once they have been adopted by the Parliament, the new Electoral Code provisions “will give Albania an electoral process with higher integrity and transparency standards, based on OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, including the gradual depoliticisation of the electoral administration”.
The two politicians added that these provisions addressed an “key condition” for the country to start EU accession negotiations (see EUROPE 12453/20). Electoral reform is one of the conditions set by the Member States for negotiations to begin. The High Representative and the Commissioner stated that “this bodes well for future progress on reforms needed on Albania’s EU path to EU membership”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)