How much will the fight against corruption and organized crime be strengthened with the establishment of SPAK? 50 45 43.05 40 35 30 25 21.9 20 15 10 5 0 A lot 44.8 34.71 Somewhat 19.7 10.94 A little 11.9 8.43 Not at all 2.87 1.7 Don’t know 2019 2020 Graph 3: Perception regarding the effect of the establishment of SPAK effect on the fight against corruption/organized crime. The decrease of citizens’ trust in the new judicial institutions should serve as a warning call to the political elite, who need to distance themselves from unconstructive public discourses and/or behaviours. The mitigation of corruption and organized crime threats is possible only through the strengthening of state institutions, and their aligning with the principles of transparency and public accountability. 1.2 UNION’S INTERNAL STRUGGLE TO ENLARGE Notwithstanding the assessments on Albania's fulfilment of these pre-conditions or in general its delivery on the EU reform agenda, the present stand-by mode of the accession process is not only a problem of satisfactory results. As the College of Commissioners in the office is heading towards the end of its second year of a five-year mandate, the accession process has not managed to advance. The pledged leading of a‘geopolitical Commission’ 3F 4 by President Ursula von der Leyen, to reinforce the role of the Union as a relevant international actor, has not materialised. Instead, the EU support of the candidate countries remains stuck at the declaratory level, without any concrete pressure on sceptical member states, who seem even more divided when dealing with enlargement policy, it has opted for temporary instrumentalization for short-term domestic political interests. 4 European Union, Speech in the European Parliament Plenary Session, Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission, Strasbourg, November 27, 2019. Accessible at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/president-elect-speech­original_1.pdf 9