Fredi Beleri

The European Commission hopes Northern Macedonia will begin accession talks with the EU the soonest possible and, referring to bilateral disputes between Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as Albania and Greece, reiterated its position that bilateral disputes should not delay the accession process.

After the Easter respite, party leaders resume their pre-election campaigns on Tuesday, as we enter the last stretch before the European Parliament elections.

On the diplomatic front, the government in Athens is preparing for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' planned visit to Ankara next Monday, where he will be meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The conviction by the Albanian authorities of Himare mayor-elect Fredi Beleri is "flimsy and baseless," the chairman of the EU-Albania Joint Parliamentary Stabilization and Association Committee and New Democracy MEP Manolis Kefalogiannis reiterated on Monday after visiting the jailed ethnic-Greek politician.

New Democracy's decision to nominate Fredi Beleri, the imprisoned mayor of Himare, as a candidate for the European Parliament aims to highlight Albania's violation of the rule of law as a European concern. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis made this clear on Wednesday, while also condemning attempts to monopolize these "progressive" issues.

Ruling New Democracy announced Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek mayor-elect in Albania recently sentenced to two years in prison for vote-buying, as a candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections.

He was represented by his brother, Leonardo, at the ballot announcement in downtown Athens, as Beleri is currently in Albanian police custody.

Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek mayor-elect in Albania sentenced to two years in prison in March for vote-buying, is unlikely to be a candidate for the European Parliament with Greece's ruling party, New Democracy, in June's European Parliament election, Kathimerini understands. 

The municipal council of Himare in southern Albania appointed Blerina Bala as the new acting mayor of the town on Friday, following the detention of Jorgo Goro.

Goro, affiliated with the ruling Socialist Party, was arrested last week on charges of alleged abuse of office, which he denies.

Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said on Wednesday that the case of Fredi Beleri, a mayor from Albania's Greek minority who was recently sentenced to two years in prison for buying votes, should be viewed as a European concern rather than a bilateral issue between the two Balkan neighbors.

I won't get into the discussion of whether putting Fredi Beleri's name on the New Democracy ticket for the upcoming European elections would serve the ruling Greek conservative party's interests; it would, in spades.

Albanian prosecutors said Saturday they ordered the arrest of the mayor of a seaside tourist town in the country's south on corruption charges.