April 4 (SeeNews) - Albania needs to implement justice reforms in order to make progress toward EU integration, independent watchdog organisation Freedom House said.
"On 9 November 2016, the European Commission issued a positive recommendation for Albania to open accession negotiations with the EU, but this is conditional upon tangible progress in implementation of the justice reform, in particular, the vetting of judges and prosecutors," the organisation recalled in its latest Nations in Transit report, which measures the level of democracy of 29 former Communist countries.
After 18 months of intensified negotiations, last July the Albanian parliament passed in a unanimous vote a set of constitutional amendments which allows the judicial reform to be implemented. But the so-called "vetting law", as well as other important law packages were adopted only by the majority. Thus, Freedom House expects the tensions related to the reform's implementation to continue.
The political situation will be further complicated by the June 2017 elections, and the last-minute efforts for changes in the electoral code, the watchdog projects.
Freedom House expressed its concern over the organised crime, and concretely drug dealers which are planting and trafficking tons of marijuana worth billions dollars.
Details from the Nations in Transit report follow, as the ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest level of democratic progress and 7 the lowest:
Albania |
2007 |
2016 |
2017 |
National Democratic Governance |
4.25 |
4.50 |
4.50 |
Electoral Process |
4.00 |
3.75 |
3.75 |
Civil Society |
3.00 |
3.00 |
3.00 |
Independent Media |
3.75 |
4.25 |
4.25 |
Local Democratic Governance |
2.75 |
3.50 |
3.50 |
Judicial Framework and Independence |
4.00 |
4.75 |
4.75 |
Corruption |
5.00 |
5.25 |
5.25 |
Democracy score |
3.82 |
4.14 |
4.14 |