{"id":38810,"date":"2026-03-12T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38810\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:08:08","slug":"brussels-calls-for-justice-as-ex-albanian-deputy-prime-minister-avoids-arrest-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38810\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels calls for justice as ex-Albanian deputy prime minister avoids arrest \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe EU takes note of the results of today\u2019s vote in the Albanian parliament. Commitment to the rule of law and the fight against corruption are of paramount importance for the EU accession process,\u201d a European Commission spokesperson told POLITICO Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnsuring a conducive environment for SPAK to effectively carry out its work is essential to credibly sustain Albania\u2019s progress towards EU membership.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The embassies of Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands also reacted to the vote, echoing Brussels\u2019 sentiment calling for the judicial process not to be tampered with.<\/p>\n<p>For Albania to join the EU, \u201cthe effective prosecution of corruption, even in high-profile cases, is an essential prerequisite,\u201d Germany\u2019s embassy in Tirana said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmbasadaGjermaneTirana\/posts\/pfbid0U31KxhkZGQu3yRmDK5a8hkw1Q2EDJ9JJNr5A2i8Y3zMXFfECpspTFnzRJ7SHukX6l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a statement<\/a>, calling for Albania\u2019s government to respect the rule of law. \u201cIt is our clear expectation that the judiciary will be able to prosecute these cases swiftly and without hindrance,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>Rama responded with a statement <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ediramaal\/status\/2032061498143465807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">on X<\/a>, saying that \u201cwe all agree 100 percent\u201d with the \u201cexpressed principles.\u201d He insisted on Albania\u2019s path into the EU by 2030 and that the government in Tirana fully supports SPAK.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe governing majority today did exactly what any democratic parliament in Europe would do,\u201d the prime minister wrote. He argued that approving prosecutors\u2019 requests to arrest an MP must follow the constitution and cannot be treated like \u201ccrossing Schengen borders without checks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Balluku\u2019s predecessor, Arben Ahmetaj, is also wanted by SPAK on corruption and money-laundering charges. The Albanian Ministry of Justice filed a request for Swiss authorities to extradite him in late 2025. Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, another member of Rama\u2019s party, has been in pre-trial detention since his 2025 arrest on similar charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe EU takes note of the results of today\u2019s vote in the Albanian parliament. Commitment to the rule&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[6213,211,4893,210,5902,6549,814,2072,2432,6551,6040,2855,431],"class_list":["post-38810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-albania","tag-belgium","tag-borders","tag-brussels","tag-corruption","tag-edi-rama","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-infrastructure","tag-judiciary","tag-mayors","tag-parliament","tag-rule-of-law"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116217309258538506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}