EU Conditions Albanian Membership On Reform

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By Besar Likmeta

“Albania has made limited progress in meeting the political criteria for membership and the 12 key priorities for the opening of accession negotiations,” the Council of Ministers said in Brussels.

“Further efforts are particularly required in key areas including the judiciary, the fight against organised crime and corruption and the protection of minorities as well as property rights,” it added.

Albania first applied for EU candidacy status in April 2009, but its bid was turned down for the second time in October.

The European Commission said not enough progress had been made in political dialogue, the fight against organized crime or against corruption.

Last year, the Commission issued 12 recommendations on policy areas that needed to be addressed with reforms in order for Tirana to obtain EU candidate status and open the door for a possible date for negotiations.

The Council of foreign ministers in Brussels, which is discussing the enlargement process in the Western Balkans among other issues, welcomed the recent start to dialogue in Tirana between the centre-right government and the centre-left opposition.

It underlined the need to overcome the stalemate that has dominated the Albanian domestic political scene.

“The Council encourages the government and the opposition to build on these recent positive developments, fully restoring and sustaining a constructive political dialogue, to support the proper functioning and the independence of key democratic institutions, notably the parliament and the judiciary,” the EU said.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

One thought on “EU Conditions Albanian Membership On Reform

  • December 8, 2011 at 7:12 pm
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    protection of minorities ? eu you make me laugh what about us albanians in slav macedioan what about the rigths of albanians in greece what about the rigths in monternrego what about south serbia albanians eu you are a joke we dont need to respect minorites until you give us our lands back eu is going down why in the hell must we join greece treats minorties bad and there in eu you can fool every one but not me sir my grandfather said it rigth dont trust eu countrys till this day he is laughing in his grave

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