Netherlands confirms: Status, not now

“Not now, later”. This is the position held by the Dutch government about Albania’s candidate status, as declared by the Foreign Minister of Netherlands, Frans Timmermans, at the Parliamentary Commission for European Affairs, where they discussed the position of Hague for the enlargement package of the European Commission before the Council’s verdict, which will be given on December 17th.

“The candidate status is a political decision. The argument of the Chamber’s majority for that region is their further, long-term integration in the Euro-Atlantic structures. When we speak politically, all those countries are candidate. This has been discussed in Zagreb in 1990 and there’s nothing new about it. Those countries have an European perspective and this is out of discussion. I don’t think anyone is against this. The issue is if we should do this political gesture and tell them that now they are a candidate country. To give you this status we need to see the conditions that we have given to Albania and how they have fulfilled them. The elections, corruption and so on. My answer to the question if they have progressed with these conditions, is: “Hmm, I need more time, because in such a short time I cannot value the implementation progress. This is what we said to the Albanian Prime Minister. He needs to show us that the implementation of these reforms can be made reality, but we need time for this. This is the stance of the Dutch government. Secondly, the stance of Netherlands is not alone at the Council. As far as I know, there are other who have the same goal as us. We want to give them the status, but not now. We need time to assess the progress. I may present this stance at the Council this December”, Timmermans declared.

While extremists mentioned Albania’s membership at the Islamic Conference and the reports of Transparency International, saying that the Albanian corruption is higher than in the African countries, there were other Parliament Members who insisted that Netherlands should not be the black sheep of the Council by saying constantly “no”.

“I’d be sorry to say ‘no, try later’, because Albania has done what has been required. I am returning to what I said before. My stance at the Council is that I and some other countries will say that we cannot give the candidate status right now. It will be given in 2014, on the right moment, if you keep taking the steps that you have promised. If you continue to bring to life what you have declared, because the Albanian government is not disappointing so far. On the contrary. I think that they are taking the necessary steps, regardless of the problems that they faced”, Timmermans declared.

The Dutch Foreign Minister promised to verify the stances of his homologues before the meeting of this Tuesday. Denmark and Great Britain seem to share the same opinions too, although there is no formal information. For the Germans it is unclear, while France is unhappy with the huge number of Albanian asylum seekers.