EU Ambassador Soreca’s interview with the Voice of America

Tirana, 12 January 2020

Voice of America: Mr. Ambassador, thank you for this interview. Albania seems to have embarked and continues to be at this long and arduous, taxing path towards the integration. What do you think is making Albania’s path towards the EU integration so arduous?

Ambassador Soreca: First of all, thank you for having me with you and “Gëzuar Vitin e Ri” to you and to all Albanian people. I think that 2021 is an important year for the path of Albania towards the EU. The 2020 has ended with important news, such as the fulfillment of three posts in the Constitutional Court. This has made functional the Court after more than two years. This really brings Albania close to what the Member States and the Council requested Albania to do last March. The integration path takes time. It takes time because the EU standards are high and Albania is doing what is necessary to reach the moment to start negotiations. Let's not forget that last March, the Council had already decided to open negotiations. Looking at where Albania is now, assuming that this year there will be the  start of the actual negotiations, as I am much convinced, Albania can take a rapid start thanks to the work done so far, for example, on justice reform, which covers the most important part of the first steps of these negotiations, the so called fundamentals. So, I understand there is some frustration but now we are really very close and I think that during the current Portuguese Presidency of the Council, there is absolutely much hope that the first IGC will be called by the Council.

Voice of America: Ambassador, do you actually think that the political class of the country is responsible for these delays of this process, and not just now for the opening of the negotiations, but also in the past as far as the EU integration is concerned?

Ambassador Soreca: The integration process is a long-term effort that goes beyond the majority or the minority of the moment, it is a whole society effort, where all political stakeholders, the civil society, the media, have to work together for this overarching objective. This is not always necessarily the case. It is important that the political class speaks in constructive terms about the EU integration. 90% of the Albanian people want to join the EU and are waiting for this. So, the political class, as you mentioned it, should inevitably make this the priority number one. And I am looking forward to seeing the majority, the minority, the future majority, the future minority, work together in a sort of national pact for European integration. People need to listen their leaders speaking about the European Union, because that is what the Albanian citizens want. The latest polls confirm this great interest, which makes Albania the country in the region that wants more the European Union. So the political class should be speaking about what the Albanian citizens want.

Voice of America: A few years ago, as far as Albania was concerned, the EU only had five key priorities for it. But then it seems to have changed, there are a few times more than five priorities or conditions. Is this because the approach of the EU has changed, like a different kind of approach, or is it because Albania is staying put?

Ambassador Soreca: The new methodology that has been adopted last year in my view helps Albania to speed up the work for its European integration. Because Albania has undergone one of the most difficult reforms that could be envisaged, the justice reform. When the negotiations will start, and this should happen soon, Albania has the potential to go faster, in my view, more than others, and I am taking the risk to say so, but I think that’s very important. I have always been very careful in talking about conditions, because what matters is what the Member States in the Council Conclusions have identified as the steps to be taken. As of today, Albania has taken those steps. Now the ball is back in the EU court and it is very important for the EU in the next months to deliver a positive response. I am confident that this would happen in the next six months.

Voice of America: Portugal, which now holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, in terms of its priorities seems to have left the Balkans to the side. What is the forecast for the six coming months of the Portuguese presidency?

Ambassador Soreca: I have heard very clear words from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, who will be running the Council meetings where the decision will be taken, and he has confirmed the full commitment of the Portuguese presidency to move forward the agenda during Portuguese Presidency towards the start of negotiations for Albania and Northern Macedonia. In the next months there are important rendez-vous, elections in some Member States, elections in Albania, and I think that this period should be used by Albania to continue the work that has been done, to further make progress in the various areas that we know well, so that as soon as the time has come, this spring, a decision will be taken. 

Voice of America: Why is it that some EU Member States continue to be skeptical about opening of negotiations? Is it perhaps due to their domestic affairs, internal affairs that affect this decision of opening negotiations?

Ambassador Soreca: The enlargement policy has a strong internal policy’s dimension for the Member States of the European Union, with of course important foreign elements attached to it. For the Member States it is very important that the standards that are set by the Council are met by the candidate countries. So far, Albania had to do some homework. Now that this homework has been done, I think it is the time to overcome also any possible national skepticism that might exist. We have also to consider that elections in a country play a role and during the preparation of the elections a country normally focuses very much on domestic policy. I think that, as I said, in the second quarter, in spring this year, I am very confident that we will be in a position to finally start negotiations.

Voice of America: Ambassador, justice reform has received a continuous and specific support from the United States and the European Union. However, if we were to go back, say to July 2016 when it was actually adopted, do you think there would be something that we could rectify perhaps? So now we have a lot of new institutions in this new system, some of these are yet to be functional. And citizens of this country expect justice, and as we know justice delayed is justice denied. So is there something that could be rectified or improved?

Ambassador Soreca: I already said that I consider the justice reform one of the most ambitious, but also one of the most difficult reforms that a country can undertake. I have been working in this area and I know how close to the heart of power the judiciary is. Albania decided in 2016 to start this journey. The journey is a difficult one, because you have to enter into the area of full sovereignty of a state. The European Union, the other international partners, have fully supported this effort and now we are in a situation where, as you said, all the institutions are set up. NBI needs to become fully functional with the recruitment of some of its operational officers, but is already there. All institutions are there and we have now to focus, after having completed the functionality of the Constitutional Court, on the High Court and I plan to work very closely with the High Judicial Council, with the High Court, in order to make sure that soon appointments are made in the High Court. To your point, if something different could have been done, this is difficult for me to say. I was not involved in the preparation of the reform back in 2016, I was dealing with other matters. Implementation of reforms allows to learn lessons.  And probably the Albanian lawmakers who conceived the justice reform in Albania and the international community didn’t expect such a high number of magistrates to be dismissed, more than 60%. This is something that I think was not in the minds of those who figured out the reform. This clearly has an impact on the pace of restarting the wheels of the day-to-day reform, because should the engineers of the reform thought about it, they would have probably, for example, put more resources in the School of Magistrates, to have more magistrates being formed day by day, they would have included some transitional measures for some courts. For example, now the Ministry of Justice is working on the so-called “judicial map”, the distribution of the courts and tribunals on the territory. Probably some adjustments there are necessary, until the moment the School of Magistrates will be able in the few next years to laureate enough magistrates to cover the numbers of magistrates that the vetting continues to dismiss. So, justice reform needs to continue at a steady pace. As I said, this is the passport for Albania to catch up fast in the negotiations the moment they start.

Voice of America: So, the vetting process is going through delays and is almost as if it’s being dragged along. How likely it is to be put into question?

Ambassador Soreca: As I said, the vetting process is essential, it is not easy, it touches upon the personal life and career of people. Therefore, all the possible safeguards need to be kept. It is important that every magistrate has the right to a proper process. I think that at the moment there are up to  650 out of 800 cases open and half of the decisions that had be taken have been issued. The vetting is in itself a very difficult process. We do trust the vetting process and together with our partners we support fully the vetting institutions, the members of the IQC, the members of the Appeals Chamber, the public commissioners. They need to work hard; they need to be protected by the public opinion, by the political class, in order to do their work. They should not be intimidated and intimidation should stop where it is happening. New resources have been given to the vetting by the budget 2021 and this should help the vetting to enhance the ability to take decisions. But it is important that we all together protect the vetting institutions that are doing a very good job to, as you said, serve justice, as the Albanian people want.

Voice of America: Ambassador, in terms of some conditions, some of these are exclusively up to the government, for instance, the revision or the reformulation of the anti-slander draft according to the Venice Commission recommendations. So do you have a comment perhaps as to the hesitation on the part of the government, because the revision or the review of this law is yet to happen?

Ambassador Soreca: As I said, what it matters is what the Council of the Member States has asked Albania to do. And March last year the Council asked Albania, in case Albania decided to adopt a media law, to do it in line with the Venice Commission opinion. In order to assist the Albanian authorities, the Council of Europe, the European Union, have provided expertise. This joint work has been efficient in my view to inform and give indication to the Albanian authorities what are the European standards to regulate, wherever necessary, the freedom of expression. As you know, we have been clear since day one that for us self-regulation is the way forward when it comes to freedom of expression. And we have passed this message to the Albanian government all along the road. I understand now that after this process of exchange of best practices, information, also in the public debate, the Albanian government has decided not to pursue the adoption of a media law, but to continue to examine best practices. Should the Albanian Government decide to come back to the idea that for the moment I understand has been set aside, we will put on the table the same principles: need for a thorough consultation of the media community, of civil society, independence of the authority that decides on the freedom of expression. You know, a big debate it is happening at worldwide level on the responsibilities of online media and the latest events in the US tell us how the important is this discussion to take place in an open debate. At European level, the European Commission is coming up with a new proposal, like the Digital Services Act, that opens the debate. I would like this to happen here in Albania as well. Should the government decide to come back to this, now or in the future, this should happen taking into account that there should never be a mechanism that does not include the media community in the decision-making.

Voice of America: Ambassador, the Prime Minister Edi Rama was critical in relation to the EU’s position on the vaccine. Do you have a comment on that at all?

Ambassador Soreca: I have to admit that we were surprised by the statement issued by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the year; in particular after the year 2020 when the solidarity of the European Union and of the Member States has never been so visible. In a few days we are going to celebrate the first anniversary of the Donors Conference in Brussels, following the tragic earthquake of November 2019, when the European Union gathered so many stakeholders to put at the disposal of Albania more than 1 billion Euro and immediately 115 million Euro from the European Commission. Now, after one year, those funds are producing concrete results on the ground, in the area of education, in the area of culture. And then, the assistance of the Union during the Covid pandemic. Everybody has seen the numbers of medical equipment delivered. I think I myself have made seven deliveries of equipment that have helped the Albanian people to go through this difficult period. And then, the Economic and Investment Plan with 9 billion Euros for the next three years. And now, while the vaccination starts, unlike other partners, the European Union has not closed the door to vaccination assistance, on the opposite, has made available 70 million Euro which are immediately available for the countries of the region, including Albania, which will get an important amount of this quota, to make sure that our Member States willing to do so could use this money to donate or resell vaccines to Albania. So I understand the frustration, but this is an extremely complex exercise. Rolling out a vaccination plan is keeping all states in the world, and the Member States, very busy, and this is proving to be extremely difficult. We see that the situation of Covid in Europe is still very difficult and the numbers of vaccines that are available are probably less than we hoped. There is a bottleneck in the production of vaccines. Despite this, we are ready to give assistance to Albania. Yesterday was a very important day, because Albania started the vaccination and we are ready to give our assistance to Albania. I am meeting with the Minister of Health, and I will be meeting the ambassadors of the Member States to work all together to make sure that the next weeks there will be more vaccines available for the Albanian citizens. But we have to understand that Albania needs to put in place a vaccination plan to allow the EU to step in, but also to allow Covax, later this year, to continue the vaccination. This is not a one-shot moment; the vaccination plan will take months, in order to cover all the community here. So the Union is here, as it has been here next to the Albanian people all along the road.

Voice of America: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador!