Clashes Over Sea Agreement

Clashes Over Sea Agreement

Along with the return to the negotiations of the Maritime Agreement between Tirana and Athens, clashes between Prime Minister Edi Rama and President Ilir Meta are also expected to resume.

The Ionian Sea was part of the discussion at Tuesday's meeting between Edi Rama and his Greek counterpart Mitsotakis.

Whilst the Prime Minister aims to reopen the agreement with the Greek government, he must also convince Ilir Meta to apply his signature in order to ratify any possible agreement.

Confidential sources for RTV ORA suggest that communications between Edi Rama and Ilir Meta have not resulted in the President's willingness to give it the green light, who believes focus should remain on getting the Constitutional Court functioning again before opening discussions on the sea issue.

Another condition is the President's decision to give full force to the talks only to the Foreign Minister voted in by parliament, that being Prime Minister Edi Rama himself and not the Acting Minister, Genti Cakaj.

The final draft to be reached between the Greek and Albanian governments must be signed by the President and then ratified by the Albanian Parliament.

Given that the Constitutional Court must also approve of the agreement, it is the attitude of Ilir Meta that fulfilling the Court's membership requirements bears a greater weight of importance as the next step in the process.

Currently, the Court has only 2 members or the required 8 it needs to become operational, with 3 candidates at the stage where they are waiting to be elected by the President and Parliament.

In 2010, the Constitutional Court overturned the agreement reached with Albania and Greece in 2009 on the delimitation of their respective areas, which saw the continental shelf and other maritime areas belonging to Greece according to international law.

Now, after 10 years, the situation is even worse, as there currently is no agreed upon document between Athens and Tirana, the President's signature is unlikely to be provided and the Albanian Constitutional Court is unable to perform its duties.

EMISIONET