EU Says Albanian Political Crisis Must Get Solved

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha gives a press conference on April 28, 2009, outside government headquarters in Prague. (Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images)

A delegation of the Council of Europe, which arrived in Tirana on Tuesday, urged the Albanian government prime minister, Democrat Sali Berisha, to quickly solve the conflict over election fraud still lingering over the June 2009 parliamentary election.

The delegation proposed setting up a parliamentary committee chaired by the opposition to help reconcile the PM and opposition leader Edi Rama. Rama is Tirana's mayor. Since last September, the opposition has boycotted parliamentary sessions, especially after Berisha ignored their request for a vote recount.

The fairness of the poll was considered critical to Albania’s integration into the European Union. The former communist country applied for EU membership in April, 2009 and still needs to solve major challenges like corruption and drug trafficking before being admitted into the European family.

The EU has set the accession of Western Balkan countries as a priority step in the further enlargement of the union