Albania Asked To Achieve Concrete Results In Reforms Before Winning Closer EU Ties

BRUSSELS, May 6 – The European
Union on Monday said it
was too early to set a date for the
next step in Albania’s EU integration
process, demanding instead
that promised reforms be implemented
first.
“I do not think that we can take
a precise engagement at this stage,”
said European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso, referring
to the formal step of giving
Albania EU candidate status.
That was said at the news conference
Barroso held with visiting
Albanian Prime Minister Sali
Berisha.
“How far is Albania implementing
on the ground the reforms
needed for EU membership, that
is the real test,” said Barroso.
First, Tirana first needs to demonstrate
it is implementing the reforms
it has promised. It needs a
“solid track record”, Barroso told
journalists.
When the commission is “convinced
that the reforms are consolidated,
only then we will be in a
position to guarantee the next
step,” he stressed.
Albania signed a pre-accession
deal with the EU – a Stabilization
and Association Agreement (SAA)
– in June 2006.
The next step in the country’s
EU integration process would be
for it to apply for EU membership
and subsequently be given the status
of EU candidate country.
At this stage, only two western
Balkan states – Croatia and Macedonia
– as well as Turkey have
the status of EU candidates.
Last week, Albanian opposition
leader Edi Rama at a conference
in Brussels called on his government
to submit the official application
for EU membership by September.
This would shift the country out
of “this comfortable situation that
is created by taking the European
integration as something obvious,
something for granted, as something
that one day will come,”
Rama said.
Berisha admitted that the demands
of the opposition as well as
of “all Albanians” to see their country
become an EU candidate as
soon as possible were “legitimate”,
but refused to commit to a specific
time-frame.
“I think that the process needs
to be a convincing one for all [EU]
member states, and for the commission,
and I cannot say a [specific]
date” for this, the prime minister
said.
“All that I can tell you is that I
will work hard to succeed as soon
as possible,” he added, underlining
that his government had already
made some progress.
Among other things, the EU is
asking Albania to better fight corruption
and organized crime, as
well as to improve its judiciary and
its administrative capacity.
Barroso said EU nations and the
Commission had serious concerns
over how Albanian authorities
were fighting corruption and ensuring
government control over the
entire Balkan nation.
Berisha said his government
was working hard to be named a
candidate. That status would allow
Albania more financial and technical
aid and open the way for entry
talks.
The EU executive last year gave
Albania 200 million Euros in aid
to be spent over the next three years
on economic and judicial reforms
and fighting poverty.
Berisha said upon return from
Brussels he could not give a date
but added that lifting visas to Albanians
travelling into EU countries
was a main topic of discussion
with Barroso.