At the end of their visit to Albania, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mevlüt Çavusoglu, the leaders of the Assembly’s five political groups and the monitoring co-rapporteurs for Albania today urge the Albanian parties to end the current political crisis in the country in order to proceed with the vitally needed reforms.

They believe that the absence of parliamentary dialogue undermines the democratic functioning of the state’s institutions.

They note that both the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party welcome PACE Resolution 1709 on the functioning of democratic institutions in Albania, adopted in plenary session last January, in response to which President Topi convened a round-table of Albanian political leaders on 13 February 2010.

The delegation pays tribute to the President and encourages him to continue his efforts.

They conclude that the solution of the current political crisis could be based on the following principles:

• - the creation without further delay of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the June 2009 elections, chaired by a representative of the opposition and in which the opposition will have an effective majority;
• - this committee of inquiry would prepare amendments to the electoral code in line with the recommendations of the international observation mission and of Resolution 1709;
• - the opposition would be granted a fair share of the chairmanships of the parliamentary committees.

Regarding the committee of inquiry terms of reference, the PACE delegation notes that both parties agree that this must be dealt with within the constitutional framework of the Republic of Albania.

The delegation considers that this is sufficient to enable the opposition to permanently participate in the work of parliament. It urges them to do so without further delay.

During their visit, the delegation met the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister, leaders of political parties and representatives of the international community.

The visit was a response to the request made by the Assembly in its Resolution 1709, to “support the process of resolving the current political situation and assist President Topi in his role of mediator and his efforts to restore political dialogue”.