Documents considered by the Committee on 29 October 2014 - European Scrutiny Committee Contents


8 EU enlargement: Albania

Committee's assessment Politically important
Committee's decisionCleared from scrutiny
Document detailsCommission Report: Albania's Progress in the Fight Against Corruption and Organised Crime and in the Judicial Reform
Legal base
DepartmentForeign and Commonwealth Office
Document numbers(36110) 10582/14, COM(14) 331

Summary and Committee's conclusions

8.1 The Commission recommended that Albania be granted accession candidate status in its October 2013 progress report (part of the 2013 "enlargement package"). The December 2013 General Affairs Council (GAC) concluded that more time was needed to demonstrate sustained and concrete delivery in the areas of anti-corruption and judicial reform strategies, recently adopted relevant legislation, and pro-active investigations and prosecutions, including in the area of organised crime; asked for a further progress report; and looked forward to a decision regarding granting candidate status in June 2014, subject to endorsement by the European Council.

8.2 In January, the Committee made its position clear: "an unqualified statement of the Government's position before the event, so that we can scrutinise it". In reaching its position, the Committee had taken into account the EU's experience with Bulgaria and Romania, both of whom — after seven years "in special measures", under the Cooperation and Verification Regime — have still to reach the appropriate standards in precisely all of these "good governance" areas; with this experience and all its consequences in mind, whether or not, in mid-2014, Albania was going to move to this next, highly important stage of the accession process would be both highly important and controversial (see paragraphs 8.5-8.7 below for full details).

8.3 The further Commission report was published on 5 June and deposited on 15 June. Notwithstanding the Committee's expectation, all that the Minister for Europe said in his 16 June EM was that the Government had not taken a final view on whether to support the granting of candidate status and that a decision would be reached in time for the 24 June GAC.

8.4 The Committee accordingly invited the Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington) to give oral evidence on 16 July (see the Annex to this chapter of our Report for the full text of the exchanges between the Minister and the Committee).

8.5 In essence, the Minister argued that:

—  the timing outlined above gave him no other choice, as the Government only had that period in which to work out its collective position;

—  it then decided that to refuse candidate status would set back the reform process, and thus contradict UK objectives, whereas granting it would be an incentive for Albania to do more;

—  to have provided the Committee with any insight into its thinking between January and June would have infringed upon the right relationship between government and parliament;

—  the granting of candidate status was in any event only a symbolic statement, and Albania was not going to be ready for accession before the late 2020's on the most optimistic calculations.

8.6 The Committee's position was, and remains, different. If, as was the case, the Government had talked at length with the Commission about all this, there was no good reason for remaining silent vis à vis the Committee until the eve of the GAC meeting. Moreover, the Government "talks" regularly to the Committee about all sorts of other EU external activity, prior to the decision stage. In a nutshell, there was nothing in what the Minister said to the Committee on 16 July that could not have been said well before mid-June. In the final analysis, we agree that the decision was a matter of judgement. But we do not accept that, as the Minister seems to have suggested, the House had no proper process in considering that judgement prior to its being put into effect: indeed, this is what parliamentary scrutiny requires. In this instance, therefore, we continue to believe that what was — its symbolism notwithstanding — a highly important and controversial decision escaped prior scrutiny for no good reason.

8.7 Elsewhere in this Report, we consider the 2014 "enlargement package" and the associated Country Progress Reports.[25] Following the granting of Candidate Status to Albania in June, the Country Progress Report states that further progress has been made towards fulfilling the political criteria but Albania needs to consolidate the momentum of reform. The Government agrees that the Albanian government has made progress in its fight against organised crime and corruption. However, it also agrees that it needs to sustain the process of reform and in particular put substantial effort into further judicial reform to underpin other activity. It also regards it vital to establish a track record of prosecutions and convictions of criminal activity and corruption; has detailed concerns with regard to human trafficking and migration pressures from Albania; and has emphasised that more needs to be done to improve effective border controls. All in all, Albania needs to intensify its efforts to ensure a sustained, comprehensive and inclusive implementation of the key priorities, notably the reform of the public administration and the judiciary, the fight against organised crime and corruption, the protection of human rights and anti-discrimination policies. The Government also supports the Commission's call on both the Albanian government and the opposition to develop a constructive and sustainable political dialogue to assist the reform process.

8.8 We now clear the Commission report.

Full details of the document: Commission Report: Albania's Progress in the Fight Against Corruption and Organised Crime and in Judicial Reform: (36110), 10582/14, COM(14) 331.

Background and previous scrutiny

8.9 Commission Communication 14942/13: Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2013-2014, provided the customary annual statement of the EU's evolving enlargement strategy, assessment of progress, and forward look to the challenges and priorities for 2014.

8.10 Having been invited by the Council to report as soon as the necessary progress had been achieved, and taking into account the further action taken by Albania to fight corruption and organised crime, including by proactive investigations and prosecutions of such cases, this "annual enlargement package" included a Commission recommendation that Albania should become a candidate country.[26]

8.11 Among other things, we noted the breadth and depth of the issues that Albania still needed to address. The Minister had highlighted the importance of tackling the rule of law upfront, building track records of effective implementation and enforcement and developing robust track records on issues such as organised crime and corruption, in the pre-accession as well as the accession process. Some other Member States apparently took a more positive view.

8.12 The December 2013 GAC commissioned a further such report and concluded that, in the light thereof, and "on the understanding that Albania builds on the encouraging progress made so far", it looked forward to a decision regarding granting candidate status to Albania in June 2014, subject to endorsement by the European Council.

8.13 The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington) said at that time that he agreed that more time was needed to demonstrate sustained and concrete delivery".

8.14 Our second Report under reference[27] dealt with Minister's letter of 24 January 2014, the purpose of which, he said, was to provide an update on the detail of the UK Government's position and "clarity on the next steps following the 17 December 2013 General Affairs Council Conclusions". With regard to Albania, we annexed to our Report the Minister's summary of the previous Commission report on Albania and his previous comments, together with an extract on Albania from the 17 December 2013 GAC Conclusions. [28]

8.15 Looking ahead to when the Minister deposited this further Commission report for scrutiny, we said:

    "we shall expect him to provide an unqualified statement of the Government's position. By then, the position will be clear, one way or the other: there will be no justification for further prevarication about possible last minute changes on the eve of the Council meeting."

8.16 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 16 June 2014, the Minister summarised this second Commission report thus:

    "the report notes that Albania has continued to make headway in a number of areas, backed up by demonstrable political will. The report also highlights areas where further efforts are required to reach EU norms. It confirms and repeats the Commission's recommendation that Albania be granted candidate status, but states clearly the Commission's view that further progress will be needed for Albania to advance to any subsequent stages of its EU path."

8.17 He also said:

    "The Government has not taken a final view on whether to support the granting of candidate status. This is a complex decision that requires consultation across multiple Departments, which is currently in progress. A decision will be reached in time for the June General Affairs Council, when the question of candidate status will be discussed."

8.18 The Minister explained that, as part of the decision process, the question of whether Albania should be granted candidate status was:

    "currently under discussion by the European Affairs Committee on the basis of the Commission Report and other available evidence. I will write to the European Scrutiny Committee with the Government's final position at the relevant time."

8.19 In response, we noted that:

—  in reaching its position, the Committee had taken into account the EU's experience with Bulgaria and Romania, both of whom — after seven years "in special measures", under the Cooperation and Verification Regime — have still to reach the appropriate standards in precisely all of these "good governance" areas;

—  with this experience and all its consequences in mind, whether or not, in mid-2014, Albania was going to move to this next stage of the accession process would be both highly important and controversial;

—  we could thus not have been clearer about what was required in order for us to be able to scrutinise effectively such a significant decision of the Government;

—  as to the Government's views, the very least that we expected was an assessment of whether the Minister regarded the Commission's findings as constituting sufficient evidence of "sustained and concrete delivery";

—  all such calculations have been "a complex decision that requires consultation across multiple Departments" for many years, with many other countries;

—  there was in our view no excuse for the Minister not having warned the Committee in good time that he was not going to accede to the Committee's long-standing request;

—  instead, sending his Explanatory Memorandum only on 16 June was far too late for it to be considered at our last meeting before the June GAC, as his staff, if not he, would have known.

8.20 We therefore found the timing and nature of the Minister's response — which effectively denied the House the opportunity to scrutinise meaningfully the Government's position on a highly controversial matter — unacceptable. Against this background, the Committee was driven inescapably to the conclusion that, through the Minister, the Government was showing disrespect to the scrutiny process.

8.21 The Committee therefore invited the Minister to appear before it on 16 July to discuss these matters.[29]

Previous Committee Reports

Fourth Report HC 219-iv (2014-15), chapter 4 (25 June 2014); also see (35395) 14942/13, (35399) 14946/1/13, (35400) 14947/13, (35401) 14948/13, (35398) 14945/13, (35396) 14943/13, (35397) 14944/13, (35402) 14949/13, (35403) 14950/13: Thirty-third Report, HC 83-xxx (2013-14), chapter 18 (29 January 2014) and Twenty-Second Report, HC 83-xx (2013-14), chapter 11 (6 November 2013).


25   See (36392), 14152/14: Commission Communication Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2014-15, and the associated Country Progress Reports, at chapter 4 of this Report. Back

26   See our Twenty-Second Report HC 83-xx (2013-14), chapter 11 (6 November 2013) for the full details of the Commission Communication and the Albania Country Progress Report. Back

27   Thirty-third Report, HC 83-xxx (2013-14), chapter 18 (29 January 2014). Back

28   The Council Conclusions are available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/genaff/140142.pdf. Back

29   See Fourth Report HC 219-iv (2014-15), chapter 4 (25 June 2014). Back


 
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Prepared 7 November 2014