Fredi Beleri

Albanian mayoral candidate Gjergj Goro, who assumed office amid the incarceration of opponent Fredi Beleri in the Albanian region of Himare, reportedly resigned on Saturday. 

Beleri, an ethnic Greek, has been incarcerated pending trial since May on vote-buying charges after his arrest on the eve of municipal elections which he won against Socialist candidate Jorgo Goro.

It is preferable, especially for Albania but also for Greece, to address the issue of the elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, bilaterally before it escalates into a EU concern. This proactive approach is essential to prevent any negative impact on the membership prospects of the neighboring country, a goal that Athens has every reason to support.

In a move on Thursday that, under certain circumstances, might open the door to a compromise in the case of jailed ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama referred to him as the "elected mayor of Himare" for the first time, even though he backed as correct the ruling by the Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime in Tirana that denied him permission to attend a

Judgment time is near for the jailed mayor-elect of the ethnic-Greek Albanian town of Himare, as the special corruption court responsible for hearing his case convenes on Tuesday to the crux of the matter. This means ruling on whether Fredi Beleri is guilty of vote-buying.

With the relaxing in Greek-Turkish tensions made official by the recent meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece must now deal with German activism on the expansion of the European Union.

The public position taken on Wednesday by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in favor of Albania's candidacy to the EU revealed a slight crack in relations between Athens and Berlin.

Greece has clarified that Tirana's intransigence in the case of jailed ethnic Greek mayor-elect Fredi Beleri is in conflict with the European acquis.

Diplomatic sources from Brussels reaffirmed on Tuesday Greece's stance that it will not consent to Albania's EU accession process without progress on the issue of the elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri.

There is currently no mention of Albania as a European Union candidate country in the Enlargement chapter of the latest draft of the forthcoming European Council, which starts Thursday.

Fredi Beleri's request to be sworn in as mayor of Himare was rejected by Albania's Special Appeals Court for Corruption and Organized Crime on Monday.

Beleri was arrested in May on voting fraud charges just before winning the municipal election in the predominantly ethnic-Greek southern Albanian region of Himare. He is currently in pretrial detention.

Albania's Special Appeals Court for Corruption and Organized Crime is set to resume the examination of Fredi Beleri's request on Monday. Beleri, the elected mayor of Himare currently in pretrial detention on charges of vote-buying, is seeking permission to be sworn in before the municipal council.