Rama meets EPP leader: Opposition should end boycott

During the meeting, they shared some assessments regarding the fulfillment of requirements set by the Democratic Party, regarding the boycott.

After the meeting, Socialist MP and vice president of the Integration Commission in the Parliament, Taulant Balla, said in a statement to the media:

"I informed Mr. Weber that we have already approved in the Parliament the two investigation committees. Furthermore, we expect the opposition to take the lead in the case. We also informed him of the issue of space given to the opposition in the Parliament of Albania. We have changed the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, where the opposition can speak whenever it wants.

We shared the same opinion with President Weber to maintain a communication channel permanently with the opposition, because we want the same kind of communication that exists here in the European Parliament.

Based on this, can we say after this that an agreement between the majority and the opposition can be reached soon?

"The fact that our interlocutor, who is chairman of the EPP, also accepted that we have fulfilled all demands of the opposition it is in the hands of the DP to enter the Parliament and end boycott."

Mr. Balla, one of the opposition's demands is also removing "criminals" from the Parliament. Did you discuss this issue?

"The opposition has raised as a concern the incident occurred in the Parliament on July 10th 2014. We informed Mr. Weber that we encourage the justice institutions to do their duty. We informed him how the investigation is doing on. We have said that we condemn any form of violence in the Parliament.

Regarding your question the Socialist Party is the only political force that before depositing the list of candidates requires a kind of statement that comes from the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice to determine whether they have previously had any criminal activity.

What about the inter-parliamentary meeting?

This has been more a procedural issue. The Albanian Parliament was proposed a date, while the Albanian Parliament itself, did propose another date. You must understand that even EP itself is not ready to hold meetings of this character. But, let's hope the 18th will serve as a date for the opposition MPs to return to the Parliament.

Regarding the number of those dismissed from the public administration? "At least in this case, the European institutions are informed, because the whole process of implementation of the Law on Civil Servants, is being monitored daily, 24 hours, from the European Commission. Every single movement in public administration system is reported in Brussels. Everyone knows that opposition figures are untrue."