What does EU’s Stabilization and Association Agreement mean to Albania

TIRANA, May 5 – The Stabilization and
Association Agreement (SAA), which Albania
signed two years ago, represents a major
step towards European Union membership
by the countries of the Western Balkans.
As its name suggests, it is designed to bring
basic stability and prosperity to a region
devastated by the conflict that erupted after
the implosion of the former Yugoslavia.
Albania signed its SAA in June 2006, but
it is still waiting to become an official candidate
country.
No date has been set when the country
may become a candidate, but the Albanian
opposition leader said during a recent visit
to Brussels that his country should become
a candidate this autumn.
As EU documents state, “the partnership
between the EU and the Western Balkans is
in the interest of all partners: peace, stability,
freedom, security and justice, prosperity,
quality of life, for the EU and the Western
Balkan countries.”
Devised in 1999 and approved a year later
at a summit in Zagreb, the Stabilization and
Association Process (SAP), of which each
SAA is the key ingredient, helps aspiring EU
candidates adapt to the strict standards that
eventual membership would entail.
An SAA recipient must carry out an array
of political, judicial and economic reforms
designed to become a modern, freemarket
economy. In return, the EU offers a
series of benefits. These can include financial
assistance, free trade agreements and the
relaxation of visa rules. Each country moves
forward on the basis of the fulfillment of its
agreed commitments, with an annual
progress report assessing the readiness of
any Western Balkan country to move closer
to joining the EU. With the exception of
Slovenia, which was already on the way to
EU membership in 1999, all the countries
of the Western Balkans have become part of
the SAA process. (Tirana Times Staff)