Justice reform cannot be held hostage to different political agenda while opening of Albania’s accession talks with the EU is a national responsibility, said on Friday Prime Minister Edi Rama at the annual meeting with journalists.

On this occasion, the prime minister presented a balance sheet of the government’s achievements.

The prime minister pointed at attempts of stimulating another artificial crisis over the justice reform as one side finds it impossible to accept that the justice reform is indispensability and cannot be stopped.

“However, the reform is being implemented, the vetting organs are now working full time and I believe that early next year it will yield the first concrete results of cleaning the Palace of Justice from the corrupted judges and prosecutors”, said PM Rama.

On the other hand, the election of the temporary Prosecutor-General, according to him, is done while ensuring continuation of work of the prosecutor-general institution and at the same time guaranteeing that “the reform cannot be held hostage to different political agenda”.

Likewise, emphasized PM Rama, “The process has already entered into a new phase of implementation and side by side with the vetting process and the first concrete results of cleaning the Palace of Justice will be set up the new institutions of a fundamentally reformed justice system”.

Further on, the prime minister highlighted the fact that during 2017 was recorded the lowest number of murders. 2017 is also the year of the historic turning point of phenomenon of cannabis cultivation.

“In 2017, Albania came out of the map of countries cultivating and trafficking narcotics while the State Police reconfirmed its progress with keeping public order and security. The number of murders is a rather significant figure,” said PM Rama.

Moreover, the criminality figures have experienced a falling trend approaching to the average of the EU countries. No news is good news hence, statistics provide the real crime figures, said PM Rama.

Further on, the prime minister said that Albania opening EU membership negotiations remains a national responsibility of all the sides.

“During the first 100 days in government we have escalated a wide scale diplomatic action so that to ensure opening of EU membership negotiations during the first 6-month period of next year,” said PM Rama.

The prime minister expressed his regret of failing to show a unified stance as the opposition is playing with fire turning into a barrier that hampers to convey the crystal clear message of Albanian politics being unified in this key moment of the national history after the fall of communism.

The prime minister added that not the Socialist Party and government, but Albania opens EU accession talks which don’t last for a governance mandate, but are a national responsibility of all the sides.

“Opposition convulsions against justice reform through hampering the vetting process and the attempt of turning the legal election of the Prosecutor General into a moment of artificial crisis are to the detriment of Albania’s interest in regard to opening of the EU membership negotiations,” said PM Rama.

The prime minister took the opportunity to highlight the state being up to the mark at the time of flooding. PM Rama appraised the Armed Forces and the Rapid Reaction Force for their action during the flood period.

The prime minister emphasized that as the cameras are now focused on other topics, the government has continued with the process of repairing the damage caused by flooding.

The prime minister spoke about other topics like the drastic reduction of licenses and permits, authorizations and documents in an effort to reduce corruption and save the time of the people.

“Many services are being included in the e-Albania portal.

The prime minister mentioned also the steps taken to ensure food safety and especially meat to be traded by licensed slaughterhouses that meet the EU standards.

Speaking about the achievements in the field of education, the prime minister emphasized that, “Albania has already completed the international accreditation of the universities. The British accreditation agency has completed the report on 35 institutions of the higher education and the decisions are made public on the official page of the Ministry of Education and Sports.”

Likewise, the prime minister emphasized that within the next four years Albania’s roads will be up to the European standards.