Is Albania threatened of enjoying free visas?

TIRANA, March 1 – Since mid-December Albanians may freely go to all EU member countries due to the visa-free regime given to them by Europe.
The last results indicated form the Interior Ministry show that there has been no Albanian asking of asylum in any European country, a move which had turned into a concern following many Macedonians and Serbs doing that in some western European countries (many of them were ethnic Albanians living there).
But the recent developments in the country, the political conflict and the deadly riot of Jan. 21 followed by many other protests of the opposition have turned into discussion a likely threat that could come from Europe on turning back the visa regime.
The visa is a political issue in this country. Governing Democrats claim they were the ones who fulfilled the European requests and other steps to achieve that level of security required for visa-free regime. They also blame the opposition on trying to stop that regime.
The opposition retorts saying that the visa-free regime came after a long process the country had fulfilled and that it was delayed due to the corruption and lack of management from the government.
At a recent meeting of the Council of the European Union, the EU interior ministers discussed the problems arising after the abolition of visas for the West Balkan states.
The European Commission informed interior ministers about a mechanism for monitoring implementation of the visa free regime for the West Balkan countries that should enable the timely response of the EU member states to the increased number of asylum seekers. The monitoring mechanism was established in November, when the visa free regime was introduced for citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Commission may, as planned, propose the temporary suspension of visa-free regime for individual member states in case of visa liberalization abuse.
European Commission spokesman Michele Cercone reminded that the whole process of the “double tracking” of visa liberalization has begun in January and it will take several months to get a complete picture of how the regime is applied. Until then, he said, the visa free regime for citizens of the West Balkan countries travelling to the EU remains in force.
France and the Netherlands have proposed the establishment of an extraordinary mechanism for the temporary introduction of visas that would, in the case of major problems, enable suspension of the visa-free regime for a country on the “white Schengen” list.
That means that Albania is under scrutiny and for sure that is a very strict and careful one.