{"id":27543,"date":"2021-12-16T16:08:52","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=27543"},"modified":"2021-12-16T16:10:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:10:07","slug":"ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/","title":{"rendered":"EP: Organized crime a major obstacle to Western Balkans development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MEPs are calling on the governments of the six Western Balkan economies to push forward with the reforms on the rule of law and combat corruption and organized crime.<\/p>\n<p>They emphasized that the battle against organized crime and progress towards EU integration are two parallel reciprocal processes.<\/p>\n<p>The report, adopted on Wednesday by 531 votes, 48 against and 117 abstentions, says refers to Western Balkan countries as places of \u201corigin, destination, and transit for human trafficking, and they serve as a transit corridor for migrants and refugees and as a location for money laundering and firearms trafficking\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that these countries must cooperate and exchange intelligence with EU member states as well as international partners in order to tackle crime and corruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrganized crime harms the confidence of citizens in their public institutions. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a major obstacle for the efforts of the societies in the Western Balkans to develop their states and economies. The EU must not use organized crime as an excuse to delay the enlargement process but should stand with the people of the Western Balkans in their fight against organized crime\u201d, declared Austrian MEP\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/meps\/en\/190713\/LUKAS_MANDL\/home\">Lukas Mandl<\/a> from the European People&#8217;s Party.<\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/albania\/2021\/12\/10\/escobars-visit-to-tirana-kim-the-u-s-supports-albania-in-the-fights-against-corruption\/\">Escobar\u2019s visit to Tirana, Kim: It reaffirmed the support of U.S. in fight against corruption<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/balkans\/2021\/12\/08\/bosnias-security-minister-indicted-on-corruption-charges\/\">Bosnia\u2019s security minister indicted on corruption charges<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/albania\/2021\/09\/23\/92-of-albanians-believe-their-government-is-totally-drenched-in-corruption\/\">92% of Albanians believe their government is totally drenched in corruption<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEPs are calling on the governments of the six Western Balkan economies to push forward with the reforms on the rule of law and combat corruption and organized crime. They emphasized that the battle against organized crime and progress towards EU integration are two parallel reciprocal processes. The report, adopted on Wednesday by 531 votes, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EP: Organized crime a major obstacle to Western Balkans development - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EP: Organized crime a major obstacle to Western Balkans development - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MEPs are calling on the governments of the six Western Balkan economies to push forward with the reforms on the rule of law and combat corruption and organized crime. They emphasized that the battle against organized crime and progress towards EU integration are two parallel reciprocal processes. The report, adopted on Wednesday by 531 votes, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T15:08:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T15:10:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-European_Parliament_building_Brussels_3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40904b56ee024949b80be8199e47e27d\"},\"headline\":\"EP: Organized crime a major obstacle to Western Balkans development\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-16T15:08:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-16T15:10:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\"},\"wordCount\":246,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/800px-European_Parliament_building_Brussels_3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kryesoret\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Balkans\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/ep-organized-crime-a-major-obstacle-to-western-balkans-development\/\",\"name\":\"EP: Organized crime a major obstacle to Western Balkans development - 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