Europe postpones considering Albania’s request for candidate status

TIRANA, Oct 28 – The European Union foreign ministers did not include Albania’s request on candidate status at their Tuesday meeting. That was another postponement and the reasons seem not to be clear enough, at least to most ordinary Albanians.
Three years ago Albania signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement which was completed (ratified) by all member countries at the beginning of the year. Last December it started the economic deal with the EU. And in April Tirana applied for candidate status which should now be considered by the EU Council of Minister whether the country really deserves that status.
Carl Bildt, Swedish foreign minister whose country also holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, said the reason for that was “technicalities.”
But the same day Dutch foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the reasons were political.
What does it really mean?
Albanians also heard that Germany and its lawmakers have been insisting they are new in their posts and need time to consider Albania’s request.
That is all news to Albanians who hear from Brussels, including many comments from the governing political groups as well as the opposition.
It was also learnt that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was supposed to be pressing Europe on considering Albanian’s case and that he said afterwards the case would be included at Europe’s Council of Ministers next month.
That could be normal for European bureaucracy. But common Albanians also listen attentively to the Eurosceptics.
They also follow the country’s political fight.
The final result is they continue to be pessimistic about when they will really be considered as European citizens, like all the others on this continent.
They are being told that by June next year they will have the visa-free regime in place so they can move freely around Europe.
A suspicious mind again asks: is that really true? Won’t EU or its member countries need to ratify the visa decision one by one, or won’t it start practically Jan. 1, 2011 like it will for the other Balkan countries given that status (for Jan. 1, 2010)?
Whatever. Albanians need the visa-free regime but many also say that being an EU member also means a better life, less corruption and more rule of law.