Marc Grossman Holds a Media Availability with Balkan Journalists

Summary

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So, it isn't so much of a standards before status thing that we announced last November. The way I've talked about it is it's a review date strategy. People last year in Kosovo said, "We're frustrated, we don't know what the standards are." Well, now there's a standards package. Then, they said, "Well, we're frustrated because we don't know how to implement those standards." Well, there's an implementation plan.

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Marc Grossman Holds a Media Availability with Balkan Journalists

UNDERSECRETARY GROSSMAN HOLDS A MEDIA AVAILABILITY WITH BALKAN JOURNALISTS, AS RELEASED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT

OCTOBER 5, 2004

SPEAKER: MARC GROSSMAN, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS

[*] QUESTION: I would like to ask first on Albania, since Albania is a country with widespread corruption, organized crime, and trafficking in persons, some of the most acute problems in the country. How do you deal with the Albanian officials, since they are America's friends?

GROSSMAN: Well, first of all, the issues that you raise are really serious ones, especially, I would say, trafficking in persons, where all of us, the United States, countries in the Balkans, Albania, countries all over the world have suffered from this problem. And what we are trying to do is, we are trying with the Government of Albania and with governments in the region to attack these problems.

So, we are, for example, spending some money in Albania on issues of trafficking in persons. We're spending some money on public education on rule of law, which gets at the questions of corruption. And, so, this is always a topic of conversation with the Government of Albania. I think they take it seriously. We certainly take it seriously. And, as Albania moves toward Euro-Atlantic integration and Euro-Atlantic institutions, these will be the ki...

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