The European Commission hopes Northern Macedonia will begin accession talks with the EU the soonest possible and reiterated its position that bilateral disputes should not delay the accession process.
ALBANIA
The citizens of North Macedonia no longer consider Greece as a threat to their country but they remain concerned about Bulgaria and Russia, a survey of five Balkan countries has found.
The conviction by the Albanian authorities of Himare mayor-elect Fredi Beleri is “flimsy and baseless,” the chairman of the EU-Albania Joint Parliamentary Stabilization and Association Committee and New Democracy MEP Manolis Kefalogiannis reiterated on Monday after visiting the jailed ethnic-Greek politician.
Questions have arisen as to whether Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s visit to Athens will finally be allowed on May 12, when he is scheduled to address a gathering of Albanian immigrants, members and friends of his party.
Ruling New Democracy announced Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek mayor-elect in Albania recently sentenced to two years in prison for vote-buying, as a candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections.
Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek mayor-elect in Albania sentenced to two years in prison in March for vote-buying, is unlikely to be a candidate for the European Parliament with Greece’s ruling party, New Democracy, in June’s European Parliament election, Kathimerini understands.
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has plans to build a tourist resort in the area near the town of Vlora, loved by locals for its quiet pine forests, olive trees and walking trails, and where cows saunter along the deserted windswept beaches.
Eight people have died in southern Albania when a car carrying suspected migrants swerved off a mountain road into a ravine, police said.
The municipal council of Himare in southern Albania appointed Blerina Bala as the new acting mayor of the town on Friday, following the detention of Jorgo Goro.
Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said on Wednesday that the case of Fredi Beleri, a mayor from Albania’s Greek minority who was recently sentenced to two years in prison for buying votes, should be viewed as a European concern rather than a bilateral issue between the two Balkan neighbors.
I won’t get into the discussion of whether putting Fredi Beleri’s name on the New Democracy ticket for the upcoming European elections would serve the ruling Greek conservative party’s interests; it would, in spades.
Albanian prosecutors said Saturday they ordered the arrest of the mayor of a seaside tourist town in the country’s south on corruption charges.
Things are judged by results, and in the case of Fredi Beleri, things have not gone at all well. The mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek town of Himare in southern Albania is to remain in prison until September 12, 2024. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s goal is for the appeal trial to be finished by September too, so that Beleri can be convicted once and for all and disqualified. Rama can then call fresh elections in Himare and is hoping that the climate of fear and various forms of pressure will allow a mayor of his liking to be elected.
Albania’s council of ministers, headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, appointed on Wednesday Vangjel Tavo as prefect of the Vlora district, in Albania’s south, in a move seen as an effort by Rama to diffuse tensions with Greece, caused by the conviction of the elected mayor of Himare for vote buying.
Tirana’s handling of the case of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek elected mayor of Himare in southern Albania, has adversely impacted bilateral relations with Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Skai TV in an interview on Tuesday.
Greece’s decision to block Albania’s EU accession process in the wake of mayor-elect of Himare Fredi Beleri’s prosecution and sentencing will inevitably impact Greek plans to reach an agreement on the delimitation of maritime exclusive economic zones that Athens hoped would serve as a blueprint for the more important negotiations with Turkey.
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