Declaration of Socialist Party of Albania

Another Berisha government initiative for the stolen land on the Ionian coast

Double and dangerous play of Berisha Government to conquest lands and properties of native Ionian Coast

According to investigative newspaper "TEMA", the Socialist Party MP, Erion Brace, denounced Yesterday a government effort to stolen land on Ionian coast.

He said that the Parliament these days are expected to review a bill, "On some changes in the law of the year 1995, for over owned land without compensation
agriculture ".

But just now he will be passed on review to another law. According Braçes the goal is clear,deprived of land on the Ionian coast.

more see: www.gazetatema.net

Albania's Berisha argues boycott does not hinder visa liberalisation

13/11/2009

TIRANA, Albania -- The opposition Socialist Party's (SP) two month-long parliamentary boycott does not hinder the visa liberalisation that Albania is seeking in 2010, Prime Minister Sali Berisha told lawmakers Thursday (November 12th).

He reiterated that the majority is ready to establish a parliamentary panel to look into the SP's demands. The SP insists the June general elections were "manipulated" and says the boycott will continue until an investigation is conducted.

A crack in the party surfaced Thursday when five SP lawmakers invited colleagues to quit the boycott for the sake of EU integration reforms and return to parliament next week.

Vassilios Bollanos continues his visit with compatriots in USA

www.nenanews.eu

US Urges Solution to Albania Political Crises

13 November 2009

U.S. Ambassador to Albania John L. Withers

US Ambassador in Tirana John L Withers called on Prime Minister Sali Berisha and opposition leader Edi Rama to find common ground and resolve the politcal row that has engulfed the country since the 28 June parliamentary elections.

“Our position (on the parliamentary boycott) is that it would really be for the best if dialogue could occur among the leading political actors to reach some sort of compromise that would end this particular stalemate,” said Withers in a statement.

“I think we all feel that not having the opposition in the parliament is not good for the country as a whole,” he noted, adding that: “We would like to see that resolved, but we think that it is absolutely vital (to understand) that this is really is a question for the Albanian political leadership to resolve (and) we hope that they can resolve it among themselves and things can go back to the way that they should be.”

The Socialist Party, headed by Tirana's mayor Rama, has boycotted parliamentary sessions ever since the new parliament was reconfigured in September, after the June poll.

Rama considers the electoral process as marred by fraud and has asked for a recount of the vote as precondition for his deputies to return to parliament. The request has been denied by the Democratic Party headed coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who has argued that the courts have already given their rulings on the election results, and the government cannot circumvent their authority.

Τα περιττά σύννεφα

Tου Σταυρου Τζιμα

KATHIMERINI

Οι δύο πιο σημαντικές συμφωνίες που υπέγραψαν τα τελευταία χρόνια η Ελλάδα και η Αλβανία παραμένουν μετέωρες. Η μία αφορά τα θαλάσσια σύνορα των δύο χωρών και η άλλη τα νεκροταφεία των Ελλήνων στρατιωτών που σκοτώθηκαν το 1940 στον ελληνοϊταλικό πόλεμο. Υπογράφτηκαν από τις κυβερνήσεις Μπερίσα και Καραμανλή, αλλά δεν έχουν επικυρωθεί ακόμη από το αλβανικό Κοινοβούλιο.

Mολονότι οι υπογραφές μπήκαν με τον πιο επίσημο τρόπο, οι συμφωνίες, αντί να διευθετήσουν εκκρεμότητες, κινδυνεύουν να καταστούν σημεία τριβής στις σχέσεις των δύο χωρών. Ούτε η ελληνική Βουλή έχει βεβαίως κυρώσει τις συμφωνίες ακόμη, όμως στην Αλβανία έχουν καταστεί, ειδικά εκείνη για τα σύνορα, αντικείμενο σφοδρής κομματικής διαμάχης, γεγονός που δεν αφήνει αδιάφορη την Αθήνα.

Η σοσιαλιστική αντιπολίτευση και οι σύμμαχοί της εκδήλωσαν εκ των υστέρων υπόνοιες ότι οι Ελληνες τους έκλεψαν στη χάραξη της θαλάσσιας οριογραμμής και προσέφυγαν στο συνταγματικό δικαστήριο εναντίον της συμφωνίας. Ταυτοχρόνως, μερίδα του πολιτικού συστήματος και της πνευματικής ελίτ θεωρεί ότι η παρουσία νεκροταφείων στην Κλεισούρα και τους Βουλιαράτες υποδηλώνει ελληνικές βλέψεις στην Αλβανία και βάλλει κατά της συμφωνίας.

Στο ίδιο μήκος κύματος κάποια ΜΜΕ των Τιράνων, που τροφοδοτούν την κοινή γνώμη με σενάρια συνωμοσίας των Ελλήνων. Θα περίμενε κανείς ότι η ατμόσφαιρα καχυποψίας που επί μισό και πλέον αιώνα συσσώρευσε γκρίζα σύννεφα στον «μοιρασμένο ουρανό» των δύο γειτόνων έχει διαλυθεί.

Η αλήθεια είναι ότι μετά την κατάρρευση του καθεστώτος Χότζα έγιναν πράγματα και από τις δύο πλευρές που έσπρωξαν τις ελληνοαλβανικές σχέσεις στο χείλος του γκρεμού. Δικοί μας ακραίοι εθνικιστικοί κύκλοι και υψηλών πατριωτικών τόνων επίδοξοι ηγέτες -ανάμεσά τους κάποιοι που σήμερα διεκδικούν κορυφαίους ρόλους στην πολιτική ζωή- ονειρεύονταν αλλαγές του συνοριακού status και ενίσχυσαν λογικές και πρακτικές που ερέθιζαν και έδιναν τροφή στον αλβανικό εθνικισμό. Αυτός ξεσπούσε στην ελληνική μειονότητα, ασκώντας εις βάρος των Βορειοηπειρωτών άγρια τρομοκρατία, με απώτερο σκοπό την εθνική εκκαθάριση του νότου και εν πολλοίς το πέτυχε, αξιοποιώντας με τον καλύτερο γι’ αυτόν τρόπο τα λάθη της Αθήνας.

Φαίνεται ότι τα ταμπού δεν έχουν ξεπεραστεί, μολονότι οι σχέσεις μεταξύ των δύο χωρών είναι άριστες και οι όποιες ιστορικές διεκδικήσεις καθίστανται άνευ νοήματος, δεδομένου ότι στο -σύντομο ελπίζω- μέλλον οι δύο γείτονες θα είναι μέλη της Ε.Ε. και τα σύνορα θα πέσουν.

Το άσχημο είναι ότι εν υπνώσει προκαταλήψεις και εθνικές φοβίες εξάπτονται, ειδικά στην Αλβανία, με μοναδική ευκολία από κόμματα και πολιτικούς για εσωτερική κατανάλωση, γεγονός που κάθε άλλο παρά ενισχύει την εικόνα της χώρας στην Ευρώπη.

Albanian nationalist blogs menace Northern Epiriot journalists


NATO and EURO-POL observing everything by electronic panel investigation in Albania. Brussels asks Tirana for new security measures and EU obligations for stability of the country

His name is Lizander Saraci, is one of the Albanian emigrant who lives from long times in Europe, annalist and opinionist in Albanian media, who often menaces member and personalities of the Greek Community of Albania, particularly journalists who have the Greek origin from Northern Epirus in Albania.

This is the last menace, only some days ago, during his comments on Albanian nationalist blogs, who claims opened for the dead of Greek journalists.
This person comes and comments systematically in the Albanian nationalist media against the leader of the Albanian Orthodox Church his Eminence Anastas Janullatos organizing petitions against his stay at the top of the Albanian Orthodox Church, when this is the right of Greeks and Albanian citizen orthodox community to chose their patriarch or high represents.
Anyway, NATO and EURO-POL observing everything by electronic panel investigation in Albania. Brussels asks Tirana for new security measures and EU obligations for stability of the country

The Balkans remains the EU's litmus test

By Olli Rehn

12.11.2009

The EU must continue the ‘political de-mining' of the Balkans and use lessons learnt there to develop its foreign-policy role.

For two decades, the western Balkans has been a real-life testing ground of the foreign policy of the European Union. While nobody wanted it that way, the EU's common foreign and security policy was born in the context of the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Since then, the Balkans has been the frontier for the EU's evolving foreign policy.

It was a difficult birth, and we learned hard lessons. As a result, we are today more capable of working for peace and stability.

In recent years, the European perspective has helped stabilise the western Balkans. The prospect of and conditions for joining the EU have driven democratic and economic reforms forward.

Croatia is nearing the finishing line, after four years of negotiations. We have free-trade arrangements in place with the rest of the western Balkans – the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. We are also working to extend visa-free travel next January to the countries that have met the EU's conditions, especially the issuing of biometric passports.

Still, this progress remains fragile. Despite relative political stability in the region, there is no ‘end of history' in sight. We cannot afford to lull ourselves into complacency when facing dangerous political minefields in the western Balkans, either in the form of bilateral problems between certain countries, or domestic stalemates in others.

Therefore, we must continue what I would call a policy of political de-mining in the western Balkans. That means tackling these problems one by one, by combining the EU's soft power and classical tools of diplomacy.

We have seen some successes, such as the recent agreement on arbitration to solve the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, which was signed in Stockholm on 4 November. This enabled us to unblock and resume Croatia's accession talks after a long break.

Next, we want to see progress on the name issue of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The country is a positive example of the EU's gravitational pull and has performed impressively in EU-related reforms after years of stagnation. This enabled the European Commission last month to recommend opening accession negotiations with the country.

The governments in both Skopje and Athens have a fresh and strong mandate and have started to engage in serious talks. There should now be a real chance to settle this difficult bilateral issue, which has hampered progress in that corner of the region for 18 years.

Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains in a self-inflicted political stalemate that has dragged it backwards recently. In October, together with Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, I met the leaders of the country on two occasions in Camp Butmir in Sarajevo to try to unblock the stalemate.

Bosnia and Herzegovina risks being left permanently behind the other countries of the region in EU and NATO integration. We offered its leaders a package of measures – including constitutional changes – that would jump-start the country's EU and NATO integration.

I hope, for the sake of their citizens and the western Balkans as a whole, that the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina will commit themselves to a compromise that will help the country move forward. This is the last chance for the present generation of political leaders to bring the country into the European mainstream, which is deeply wanted by its citizens.

Our policy of stabilisation – sometimes also called enlargement – in the western Balkans has wider implications for the EU's foreign policy and its global role. We must learn from our experience there and apply these lessons when developing a more robust and effective foreign policy.

With the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty soon, we stand before a historic opportunity to move the EU's foreign policy and global role to a new level.

The EU's credibility as a global actor continues to rest on our ability to shape our own immediate neighbourhood. In south-eastern Europe we can make a real difference. This is where the EU's common foreign and security policy has proven its value.

Olli Rehn is the European commissioner for enlargement.