Thewesternbalkans
In Luxembourg on 15 of October, Albania has opened accession talks with the European Union at a second Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) and opened its first negotiation ‘cluster’. Prime Minister Edi Rama said his country has its sights set on joining the European club by the end of the decade. Talks came couples days after opposition supporters clashed with police on the streets of Tirana.
The first “cluster” of topics under negotiation covers judiciary and fundamental rights, freedom and security, and procurements and financial control.
“The moments we have experienced in the last hour-and-a-half have been historic for sure which means, substantially speaking, that accession talks have started in order to make sure that Albania will join the European Union as soon as possible,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, whose country holds the EU presidency for the second part of 2024, told the conference.
The EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, congratulated Albania on the reforms, which according to him led to the opening of the first chapters. “Today we congratulate Albania’s determination and dedicated work. As Albania fulfilled the required reforms, we are able to open the First Cluster – the Bases that allow us to continue with other groups”, Varhelyi wrote on the “X” platform.
Oliver Varhei also expressed hope that the accession negotiations with Albania will be completed in the next five years. According to him, this is possible because of Albania’s determination to undertake the necessary reforms.
“Bulgaria congratulates Albania on the progress made in the integration process, as reflected by today’s opening of the negotiations on the first cluster. This cluster is of key importance for their progress and we encourage Albania to continue its efforts in all areas identified in the Common Position of EU. Among them is the need for further progress in the field of protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, according to the commitments made by Albania with the road map on the rule of law,” said the Bulgarian permanent representative to the EU, Ambassador Rumen Alexandrov, who presented Bulgaria. “Albania leads an active and constructive regional foreign policy and is one of the candidate countries fully harmonizing its foreign policy with that of the EU”, added Ambassador Aleksandrov, quoted by the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For his part, before the intergovernmental conference, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said that the first cluster should also include issues related to the rights of minorities in Albania.
Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, declared that “today is an “extremely exciting” day, as Albania opens the first group chapters of negotiations with the EU. The EU needs the Western Balkans as much as the Western Balkans needs the EU. It is a task and a mountain that must be climbed and we are already moving on the way up with clear ideas, with a strong will, and there is no doubt that we will achieve what should be achieved, which means that Albania should join the EU by 2030”.
“We have been determined since the moment when the dictatorship was overthrown in Albania. For us, the EU is the only place where we want to live and we want our children to live and it is the only place where democracy is guaranteed. I want to thank Vladimir Putin for waking up Brussels from his sleep and the most skeptic and made him wake up to the reality that the Western Balkans is necessary for a stronger EU as much as the EU constellation is necessary for the Western Balkans”, said Rama.
The talks could see Tirana join Montenegro as a “frontrunner” of countries bidding to join the bloc, the EU’s ambassador to Albania, Silvio Gonzato, told Euronews. “ Albania does not have a plan B. There is a clear cross-party consensus on bringing Albania into the EU”,Gonzato said.
One of the bones of contention in talks is likely to be measures taken by Tirana to tackle persistently high levels of corruption.
In its annual assessment of candidates’ progress towards EU membership, the European Commission stated last November that: “Despite some progress and continued efforts in fighting corruption, it remains an area of serious concern.”
An annual review by the US State Department in 2023 found that “corruption existed in all branches and levels of government.”
An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Euronews that corruption was pervasive across all aspects of public life and posed a huge challenge to Albania’s EU integration. But Albania’s firm commitment to aligning with the bloc’s foreign policy is likely to help move along its bid: “Albania is fully aligned with the EU on all the sanctions, on all matters of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.
Albania started accession talks together with North Macedonia in 2022, with the first Intergovernmental Conference taking place in July 2022 in Brussels.
According to some Albanian media, North Macedonia’s path to membership has been blocked by Bulgaria, which insists that the Macedonian identity and language are of Bulgarian origin and that Bulgarians are repressed in North Macedonia and must be included in the country’s constitution as a state-founding ethnicity.
The EU wants North Macedonia to alter its constitution, which it agreed to do in July 2022 as part of a so-called “French proposal” put forward by the EU’s then French Presidency.
However, the government in Skopje has since changed and the alteration has not been approved by the country’s parliament. As a result, the EU has now “de-coupled” Albania’s and North Macedonia’s accession processes, allowing Albania to continue on its own.
The screening process for both countries was launched in 2018 – a preparatory stage of accession negotiations which includes 35 chapters, grouped into clusters.
Comments: As it has been announced in our analysis in December 2023 after the meeting of the European Council and the decisions taken by the Council on Enlargement, Albania has been separated from NRM and continue its road on its own merits.
The so cold “French proposal” became a Council decision in 2023 and it is clear that Macedonian authorities have had to respect this decision.
The talks were approved by EU ambassadors in late September 2024 after Albania was decoupled from neighbouring North Macedonia in its accession bid, amid what is considered a resurgence of tensions between Skopje’s nationalist government and its EU neighbours.
On the other hand, coincidentally or not, on the eve of the second intergovernmental conference, a reception center for refugees under the agreement with Italy was completed in Albania.
Some Albanian information agencies, as well as Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced, a migrant processing center set up in Albania as part of an agreement between Italy and Albania started operating from 14 of October 2024.
Something more – Albanian migrant processing center set up by the Italian government is set to welcome the first guests on Wednesday – 16 of October, as an Italian Navy vessel, Libra, set off from Lampedusa on Monday. The majority of the migrants are reported to be from Egypt and Bengal.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Foto: Pixabay
