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Albania and the EU: Paralysis or Progress? Corina Stratulat 26 June 2012

By James Kilcourse

In this discussion of Albania’s path to European Union membership, Corina Stratulat from the European Policy Centre in Brussels drew on the Policy Brief that she co-authored in March 2012 entitled Opportunity Knocks: can the EU help Albania help itself? She began by stating that it is timely to discuss the situation in Albania because the country is still at the crossroads from which it can either advance on the track towards the EU or go back in the direction of a dead end. The outcome, she argued, is mainly in the hands of Albania and, in particular, its two major political parties – the Democratic Party, led by Sali Berisha, and the Socialist Party, led by Edi Rama, whose fierce personal power struggle has become a permanent and problematic characteristic of the social, economic and political life of Albania.

On the one hand, Ms. Stratulat pointed to a number of positive signs that suggest Albania could succeed in catching up on its already sizeable reform agenda. Firstly, in November 2011 the two main parties resumed political dialogue within parliamentary structures after a prolonged standoff that dated back to the June 2009 general election, after which the Socialist opposition contested the Democrats’ victory and embarked on a boycott of parliament. According to Ms. Stratulat, the much-needed reform process was effectively paralysed for two years because of the political crisis and this obstructed Albania’s EU membership bid. The country failed twice to receive a recommendation from the European Commission for candidate status because of its poor record on reforms. She argued that having the two main political parties return to work is a crucial step in bringing about the reform necessary for Albania to receive candidate status.

Secondly, the reconciliation between government and opposition has been accompanied by a new vocabulary, including words that were previously not used in Albania like ‘dialogue’, ‘consensus’, ‘debate’, as well as references to the EU membership objective. Two years ago, according to Ms. Stratulat, links between the national reform agenda and the European integration imperative could rarely be found. Controversy, intransigence, intolerant politics and the exclusion of other national political parties and relevant stakeholders from decision-making were the norm. She noted that protests and violence were also not uncommon and recalled the four people who were killed at an anti-government rally in January 2011. She asserted that the change in rhetoric is therefore an encouraging development.

 

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Finally, since the political agreement between the Democrats and Socialists in November 2011, the country has been very keen to demonstrate that it is able to produce visible results. For instance, on 21 March 2012, the Albanian government adopted, with the active involvement of the parliament, an Action Plan that specifies the measures, timeframes, resources and responsible national institutions that will be used to address the European Commission’s twelve key priorities for the country. These priorities were outlined by the Commission in November 2010 and include the need to ensure the proper functioning of parliament, the appointment of an ombudsman, the reform of electoral law and public administration, the fight against organised crime and corruption, and the protection of human and minority rights. Implementing these conditions became the sine qua non condition for any potential moves forward by Albania towards EU membership. Ms. Stratulat argued that the country has made some headway on these priorities but still has a lot of work to do. The Action Plan, she said, is helping Albania to stay focused on what needs to be done.

Additonally, the Albanian parliament managed to elect a new President in June 2012. Given the country’s history with elections - all the electoral contests in Albania since 1991 fell short of meeting international standards – the presidential election was seen as an international test. Ms. Stratulat noted that the two main parties did talk to each other before the election and that there was no violence or major conflict when Bujar Nishani, the former Minister of the Interior and Defence, was put forward by the Democrats and elected by a simple majority vote. This, she argued, represents another small step in the right direction and, with perseverance and courage at the level of the domestic political elite, these small steps could become a leap forward in the EU integration process.

On the other hand, Ms. Stratulat asserted that the European Commission will insist on Albania achieving a critical mass of concrete results across all twelve key priorities outlined in 2010 and this will only be possible if the two main parties shed their backward habits and behaviour. She noted that the timeframe is also an issue. The country will hold a general election in June next year and, like in every country, elections can be quite divisive events and not a particularly opportune moment for undertaking substantial reforms with long-term pay-offs. She said that the momentum created by recent positive developments in Albania should be harvested now, before the campaign for the 2013 general election kicks off and also in time for the publication of the next European Commission progress report in Autumn 2012. The completion of substantial and concrete reforms would not only score Albania points in preparation for the Commission’s report, but could also help to demonstrate that the Albanian political class has become more mature, especially since the presidential elections in June 2012 were, according to some commentators, a lost opportunity. The reason, she said, is that although the two main political parties initially pledged to elect a consensual president, in the end they failed to cooperate on the task. The Socialists did not officially put forward any candidate and used the consultations that were held with the

 

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Democrats to place conditions on issues that were not directly related to the negotiations. In their turn, the Democrats delayed the start of consultations despite the call of the Socialist leader for an earlier meeting. Albania does now have a president, but instead of being elected consensually he was elected by a simple majority vote in which the Socialists did not even participate.

Moreover, according to Ms. Stratulat, Albania faces significant shortcomings with regard to the independence, transparency and accountability of the judicial system, as well as with regard to the fight against organised crime and corruption. This area is very important, she argued, because the EU is quite resolute about what can be called the good governance criteria - maintaining the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the protection of human and minority rights, and an effective and efficient public administration – and requires aspirant countries to demonstrate a solid track record in this field.

Beyond these parliament-related deliverables, Ms. Stratulat emphasised that Albania’s problem is first and foremost a problem of domestic politics and more generally a problem with the quality of democracy. The inability of the ruling political elites to cooperate across party lines and to see beyond their own political interests has, according to Ms. Stratulat, led to persistent failures to create an agency for reform. This occurs also because the main Albanian political parties can rule unchecked and unsanctioned by the people and by civil society. She argued that popular leverage remains too weak for the Albanian elites to be held responsible or to have an impact on decision-making. To overcome the gap between elites and masses in the country, the political elites would have to abide by the rule of law and take ownership of the reform agenda. At the same time, the people would have to place demands on their political leaders to respect existing laws and to perform according to high democratic standards. For this reason, Ms. Stratulat believes that, in parallel with efforts to fulfill the Commission’s twelve priorities, Albania should strive, and the EU should push, for substantive aspects of democracy that seek to strengthen bottom-up channels of social accountability and civic involvement in policy making. This, she said, has received less attention from the EU in the notoriously elite-driven process of EU integration and more should be done to address issues that prevent civil society organisations or media actors from being able and capable of influencing government decision making.

Ms. Stratulat also argued that regional cooperation remains fundamental, as demonstrated in the results achieved in collectively fighting organised crime or in exchanging and learning best practice across a variety of fields in the region. She pointed out that Albania has certain advantages in this respect over other countries in the region, which face far greater internal and external complexities. Albania does not have border disputes, does not face problems with ethnic minorities domestically and has a basis to build bridges with the other countries in the region given that many Albanians live in neighbouring states.

 

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Ms. Stratulat concluded by expressing the hope that European states will not allow the increasingly difficult economic crisis to undermine the enlargement of the EU to the Western Balkans and that Albania will do its utmost to prevent losing another year or more of progress in its accession process.