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Parliamentary question - E-006352/2017Parliamentary question
E-006352/2017
European Parliament

Infringement of the rights of the Greek ethnic minority in Albania

10.10.2017

Answer in writing

Question for written answer E-006352-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Kostas Chrysogonos (GUE/NGL)

A number of different sources have expressed serious concerns about human rights violations of the Greek ethnic minority in Albania, coupled with the spread of nationalist propaganda against Greece, for instance through Albanian school books, which show large parts of Greek Epirus and Western Macedonia as Albanian regions, a gross distortion of history[1].

Particularly in the last few years, the Albanian government has orchestrated a series of measures aimed at intimidating the Greek minority, seizing its property and eventually forcing it to flee the country. The abuses to which the Greek minority is subject include: arbitrary, methodical, forced expropriations of the property of minority families in various parts of Albania[2], the destruction of their places of worship, the theft e.g. of ecclesiastical objects[3], attacks on the Consulate General of Gjirokaster[4] and general interference by the Albanian government in the internal, administrative affairs of the Greek minority[5].

Given that Albania is a candidate for EU membership and therefore has to respect the basic principles and values of the EU, can the Commission say:

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