Accession Of Albania To The European Union
Albania applied for European Union membership on 28 April 2009. Officially recognized by the EU as a "potential candidate country", Albania started negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2003. This was successfully agreed and signed on 12 June 2006, thus completing the first major step toward Albania's full membership in the EU.
Following the steps of the recently admitted Eastern European countries in 2004, Albania has been extensively engaged with EU institutions, and joined NATO as a full member in 2009. It has also maintained its position as a stability factor and a strong ally of Western Europe in the troubled and divided region of the Balkans.
Following its application for EU membership, the Council of the European Union asked the European Commission on 16 November 2009 to prepare an assessment on the readiness of Albania to start accession negotiations, a step in the accession process that usually takes about a year. On December 16, 2009 the European Commission submitted the Questionnaire on accession preparation to the Albanian government. Albania returned answers to them on April 14, 2010. Candidacy status was not recognized by the EU in December 2010 due to the long-lasting political row in the country. The parliament in August 2012 rejected a proposal to abolish immunity for parliament members, ministers and people in some other official positions. The EU required this to be abolished along with 11 other main issues, so candidacy was delayed. However, in September 2012 a constitutional amendment was unanimously passed which limited the immunity or parliamentarians. In October 2012 the European Commission evaluated the progress of Albania to comply with 12 key priorities, being conditional to achieve official candidate status and start accession negotiations. 4 key prioriteries were found to be met, while 2 were well in progress and the remaining 6 were in moderate progress. The report concluded that if Albania manage to hold a fair and democratic parliamentary election in March 2013, and implement the remaining changes also to comply with the 8 key priorities still not fully met, then the Council of the European Union would be recommended to grant Albania official candidate status.
Read more about Accession Of Albania To The European Union: Chronology of The Relations With The European Union, State of Stabilisation and Association Agreement Ratification
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