Albanie : il est temps de se montrer à la hauteur

Selon Artan Puto dans Transitions Online, alors que l’Albanie progresse sur la voie de l’adhésion à l’UE, Bruxelles lui demande d’intensifier ses réformes.

On 18 February, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn visited Tirana as part of their tour of the western Balkans. 

The EU top officials were in town to sign off on the final text of a Stabilization and Association Agreement between Albania and the EU that will be concluded this spring. 

The SAA, a first step on the road to EU membership, will then have to be ratified by all 25 EU member states. 

The final text of the SAA was prepared before Barroso’s visit by Reinhard Priebe, the head of the EU directorate for the western Balkans, and Arenca Trashani, the Albanian minister for European integration. 

“This is the outcome of a three-year long constructive cooperation between the EU and Albania,” Priebe said. 

A great success

Albanians were delighted that three years of sometimes difficult negotiations were now coming to an end. 

“This is a new historic page of our relations with the EU and it is a testament to the Albanians’ unshakable will to make their country part of the big European family,” Minister Trashani said. 

Edi Rama, leader of the main opposition Socialist Party, also welcomed the news that the SAA was about to be signed, but chided the center-right government for taking credit for it. “Many years of work have been spent and it’s ridiculous that the party in power, which has contributed only to the last page of the agreement, is misusing it,” he told the daily Shekulli. 

Barroso sent a mixed message to Albanians in an interview with Shekulli on the day before his arrival in Tirana. “We want to help Albania and at the same time we ask Albania to undertake all efforts for reform, fighting corruption and organized crime,” he told the paper, referring to the homework Tirana still needs to complete. 

That message was reinforced in a speech Barroso gave to the Albanian parliament. “The conduct of last year’s parliamentary elections showed that Albania has strengthened its democratic institutions, although more progress is still needed,” he told lawmakers. “The real work begins now that the agreement has been initiated. Your country needs to show results in putting all the trade-related provisions of this agreement into effect. This will be a big test for the public administration. But it is also an opportunity to show the rest of Europe that Albania has the capacity to deliver results and to prepare itself for even closer integration,” Barroso said, according to local media. 

Barroso also highlighted the benefits Albanian would get from implementing the SAA, such as improved opportunities for work and higher living standards in Albania, and said that the EU would ease its visa regime for certain categories of Albanians, such as researchers and students. Since 1991, the EU has provided around 1 billion euros to Albania; another 90 million euros are to follow in the 2005–2006 period, Barroso said.

To read the article in full, visit the Transitions Online website.