A fresh diplomatic row between Greece and Albania amid local elections in the latter has threatened that Athens will block Albania's further progress towards EU membership.
This is stated in the material of Euractiv.
The reason for the scandal was the arrest on Friday, before the local elections, of the politician Fredi Beleri, who was running in the southern municipality of Himari (where there are many ethnic Greeks) from the party of the Greek minority, which united with the opposition coalition.
The law enforcement agencies said that they suspect Beleri of bribing voters. Beleri denies these accusations.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said afterwards that the actions of the Albanian authorities "harm the unity of the EU" and that this could affect bilateral relations between Greece and Albania and Albania's further progress towards EU membership.
"For me, such behavior at the expense of the interests of the Greeks is unacceptable. What happened to Fredi Beleri is unacceptable and unacceptable... Albania must understand well that if such a policy continues, it will have an impact on our bilateral relations and Albania's path to the EU" , - stated the Prime Minister of Greece.
He added that he reported this case to the president of the European Commission and stated that the accusations against Beleri are baseless.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the candidate's arrest was a "test of the justice system" and the charges against Beleri must be properly proven.
In addition, the question of maritime borders between the states, as well as the historical past - Greece's forced relocation of Albanians from the Chameria region, which Albania called genocide, can become a "stumbling block". The head of the Greek Foreign Ministry in 2022 assumed that if Tirana were to draw attention to this issue, it could create problems for it with European integration.