Albania and EU after formal application to membership

TIRANA, May 4 – Last week Albania formally applied to the European Union to start negotiations on the candidate status, a process that takes some years, but which Berisha said he was glad was finally underway.
True that this has been a good spring for Albania as the country, together with Croatia, finally made it into NATO, a springboard toward greater integration into the wider EU community.
Speaking in an interview to New Europe’s NETV during the European People’s Party Congress in Warsaw, Poland, Prime Minister Sali Berisha was anxious that his country not be overlooked again, as it often is in the patchwork quilt that makes up the Balkans. “All this became possible because of an extraordinary solidarity, which free European nations show to my nation, they became possible also because of the profound and multilateral reforms that tremendously changed my country. Albania is now a safe country, its terrible organized crime is now resolved in a short time, which has meant more than 2,400 criminal groups and organizations and more than 1,000 of the members and their bosses (have been apprehended or broken down.) Last year, we got 2.7 million visitors without any incidents. The numbers of the criminality is now lower than the average of the European Union,” he said.
Berisha repeated that the country was focused on further reforms needed in its integration process like fiscal discipline.
“Albania is the lowest fiscal burden of any country in Europe, with a flat 10 percent tax, 15 percent social security contribution, 1.5 percent small business tax. And the revenues increased every year to 22 percent, in three years we got 3.2 billion US dollars more than the previous government with the double level of taxes.”
The premier also pledged that in three or four years Albania would have a totally new system of roads and infrastructure.
Berisha repeated his promise of holding or organizing free and fair elections this June 28th.
Albania applied for EU membership Tuesday (April 28th) in Prague, less than a month after it joined NATO in tandem with Croatia.
“This act has historic significance, marking the return of my nation to the family of European nations,” Berisha said before handing over the application to Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
Albania made its first step towards EU membership in June 2006, when it signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the Union.
The European Commission’s (EC) latest regular report on Albania’s progress, issued in November 2008, said the country still had to fight organized crime and corruption, make more “progress in judicial reform” and strengthen its public administration.
Brussels had called on Albania to delay its application until after its June 28th general elections, but the country submitted the application anyway.
The Czech prime minister noted there is still “a huge amount of work” Albania must do before it is able to join the Union, which is unlikely to happen before 2015 at the earliest.
“Holding parliamentary elections in June in a free and fair manner remains a key condition,” warned Michael Leigh, the EC’s director-general for enlargement, who also attended the ceremony in Prague.
Irregularities and allegations of vote-rigging have marred elections there since communism fell in December 1990.
It will not be easy for Albania as the queue to join EU has become long this time.
Albania was the latest country to apply for membership this week, Montenegro joined other Western Balkan states in the waiting room late last year and Iceland is considering applying. EU membership is still seen as beneficial in states such as Albania, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, whose economies are less developed and stable than those in the EU.
Five years after the EU took in 10 new members in its biggest single wave of enlargement, these states’ interest shows membership still has an appeal for countries seeking financial stability and symbolic acceptance into Europe’s mainstream.
The Balkan countries have pretty weak economies that hope they would benefit from the EU anchor. But accession is unlikely to be fast.
Some leaders are wary of further rapid expansion because the latest enlargement, which allowed in Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, is regarded by some member states to have been rushed.
Above all, the pace of enlargement will depend on whether the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, intended to streamline decision-making, is approved by all member states. Without it, expansion could grind to a halt.
The traditional EU powers, France and Germany, have said enlargement must be on hold, except for Croatia, until the Lisbon treaty takes effect. That depends largely on a referendum in Ireland which is expected in October.