Gent Cakajt's reaction after voting in Netherlands for Albanian visa restore

I want to explain two things first: The first such a decision is politically motivated, so it is more a mirror of the electoral political climate in the Netherlands and a mirror of political trends in light of European elections than a reflection of actual reality and recent developments in Albania. In this sense we should rely on the commission's data that are absolutely in Albania's favour, rather than on the dominance of the current public perceptions of member states”, Cakaj said in an interview for Top Channel.

According to him, the second aspect is whether this vote will translate into visa removal for Albanians.

“In turn, such a process is very complicated, since following the motion in parliament, the government is left to address the issue on the commission. And the commission enjoys the visa suspension mechanism in the conditions as follows: the first significant increase in illegal immigration, the second significant increase in asylum requirements, the third violation of the public safety of member states, increased crime, and also the setbacks in implementing the conditions that have been needed for liberalisation of the visa set by the” commission, he says.

He further adds that, “compatible in all technical criteria, Albania stands in a solid position and does not apply the arguments presented for political motives in the Dutch parliament, and this is not a personal position of mine or a political position of the Albanian government. In fact, it was confirmed at the very hearing where the decision was made by the Dutch Justice and Security Affairs Minister. Therefore, we trust that the Commission will reject the Dutch parliament's assumption and, of course, the visa liberalisation process for Albania will remain intact”.

Cakaj says the European Commission, when it made the assessment of the conditions for visa liberalisation, has found that the conditions have been met.

“For more I would like to stress the fact that in December, the European Commission, when it has made a assessment of valid conditions to preserve visa liberalisation for Albania, has found that all of them are fulfilled. For more, we expect a positive recommendation for opening negotiations in May of this year, given progress on the key priorities set by the Commission. We are dealing with a situation where all technical arguments are in favour of Albania, but because of the internal circumstances of member states and perhaps the European Union in general has the pre-arranged dominance of political voices, which are motivated by the populist spirit, Eurosceptic principles and anti-migration attitudes and exclusive policies in general”, he said.

According to him, communication with the European Commission and other counterparts of EU member states is a regular practice of daily work. And from the co-operation information we continue to develop, we expect more good news from technical communication that will follow in May than the withdrawal of visa liberalisation for Albania from the latest action in the Dutch parliament”.