Albania after eight years of gaining status, and Northern Macedonia after 17 years

Albania's progress in the European integration process was stalled following its refusal to obtain candidate country status for three-time membership in a row. Brussels had insisted that laws for the Supreme Court, the Civil Service and parliamentary procedure reform, related to the implementation of the legal state and independence of justice, be adopted. According to the European Commission, the adoption of three laws would create a new chance for the Albanian state, Periscopi writes.

In June 2006, Albania signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which entered into force in April 2009. This agreement replaced the previous agreement with the European Economic Community on trade and economic co-operation, and trade, signed in May 1992.

The objective of this new EU political approach to Western Balkan countries is to boost regional stability and prepare the countries of the region to integrate into the European Union.

In December 2010, the visa regime removal agreement went into effect, allowing Albanian citizens to travel visa-free to the Schengen Zone.

In 2009, Albania also submitted its official application for membership in the European Union. The European Commission presented an opinion (in 2010) with the European Council's application for membership request, praising that Albania still had to meet its 12 key priorities in order to achieve a necessary degree of compliance with membership criteria.

In October 2012, the Commission recommended that Albania be granted EU candidate status, depending on the completion of reforms, particularly in the areas of judicial reform and public administration.

In June 2014, the European Council granted Albania candidate status. Taking the candidate country's status marks a very important step in Albania's EU integration process, as it reflects the performance of intermediate reforms and paves the way for the country's full EU accession process.

The next step in this process was the opening of negotiations (negotiations) for EU membership, conditioned by the complete fulfillment of five key priorities like:

1. Establishing a Professional and Depoliticised Administration
2. Strengthening Independence of Law Institutes
3. Fighting Corruption
4. Fighting Organised Crime
5. Protecting Human Rights

Northern Macedonia Integration Process

The North Macedonia European integration process was initially blocked by Greece, which disputed the name of the state.

The agreement with Athens on changing the name, Macedonia in Northern Macedonia, was reached on 17 June 2018. But with this agreement, this country's European integration was not unblocked after France blocked the process with the requirement for changing membership methodology for all countries belonging to EU enlargement.

The neighbouring Bulgaria was the next obstacle, which in November 2020 vetoed Skopje, seeking to resolve open disputes, primarily dealing with Macedonian language, identity and history.

Keeping the first conference follows the adoption of the document known as “French proposal”, which led to the removal of the Bulgarian veto, but Sofia maintained the right to block the process in the next stages, if the Macedonian side did not adhere to the proposal or to a protocol that the two countries have.

Today, when everything was finalised, Prime Minister Edi Rama  The credit was especially due to former German ancerles, Angela Merkel.

I thank Ursula, who knew how to fight for the EU and the Western Balkans, for the aspiring countries to move forward. In the meantime, I want to thank another German lady, Angela Merkel. Without him we wouldn't be here today. I'd like to wish him all the best. Thanks go to Macro and his team that worked hard.”, he said.

It is a great pleasure that after 17 years of waiting, we are finally starting negotiations. We are opening up new prospects for the state and citizens and slowly but we are confident that we are joining the large European family, which has been our strategic goal for decades,Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said.

And the president of ECA, Ursula Von Der Leen von der Leenen uroi The opening of negotiations for Albania and Northern Macedonia, saying your people deserve it./ P ERISCOPI/