Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on Albania’s progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime and in the judicial reform

The present Report is a response to the Council Conclusions of 17 December 2013 which stated:
"The Council will examine, on the basis of a report to be presented by the Commission, continued implementation of anti-corruption and judicial reform strategies and of recently adopted relevant legislation as well as a continued trend of pro-active investigations and prosecutions, including in the area of organized crime. In the light of this report, and on the understanding that Albania builds on the encouraging progress made so far, the Council looks forward to a decision regarding granting candidate status to Albania in June 2014, subject to endorsement by the European Council."

In line with the Council's request this report focuses primarily on the fight against corruption and organized crime and judicial reform and highlights some additional key developments in areas, which are important for Albania EU integration. It covers the timeframe since the publication of the most recent Progress Report, and is based on information gathered and analysed by the Commission, including input provided by the country, peer reviews and regular contacts with the Member States and international organisations.

During the reporting period, the Albanian government has shown concrete action and continued political will in the area of EU-related reform, covering a broad range of issues. In November, government and opposition joined forces to adopt a resolution on EU-integration. Since then both have continued to support EU-integration, although further consensus building has been affected by an increasing confrontational climate between the government and the opposition, which inter alia withdrew from key votes in some parliamentary committees.

In November the High-Level Dialogue (HLD) on the key priorities was launched to provide support to Albania's EU integration process by focusing on key reform priorities. At a second meeting of the HLD in early March Albania presented a roadmap, outlining Albania's medium-term efforts in meeting the key priorities for the opening of accession negotiations. At this meeting both government and opposition showed constructive commitment to EU-related reform.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)331: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:331:FIN

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