After a long period of opposition to the start of Albania’s membership talks with the European Union, the Netherlands seems to have changed its position. Dutch media report today that the Dutch Parliament finally supports the start of talks, assessing that “Albania has made enough progress to start talks with the EU.”
Unlike two years ago, when the Netherlands kept the door closed to Albania, now this EU country says that there are “positive signals” from Albania. According to some of the politicians who have been most opposed to Albania’s integration, “Progress has been made in areas such as the rule of law and the fight against corruption”, Dutch media report, writes “BalkanWeb”. They emphasize that the new accession procedure is “essential”, while stating that one reason to agree on this is the Chinese and Russian intervention in the Balkans.
After this positive attitude expressed by the Dutch government, but also the statements of the chief diplomats of countries such as Germany, Austria and Italy, it seems that Albania will have its way opened in the June 22 meeting of the European Council for the opening of the negotiating framework, which will consequently the first intergovernmental conference, which is expected to be held within this year.
