Opportunity knocks: can the EU help Albania to help itself?

On 21 March, the inter-ministerial Committee on European Integration in the Albanian government has adopted – with the active support of the parliament – an Action Plan which specifies the measures, timeframes, resources, and responsible national institutions that will be used to address the European Commission’s 12 key priorities to move the country closer to achieving ‘candidate status’. In this Policy Brief, Corina Stratulat and Gjergji Vurmo argue that while this is a welcome and promising development for a country that has long been struggling with political deadlock, the window of opportunity to tap into this progress is narrow in view of the upcoming general elections in June 2013. The authors contend that Albania should harness constructively this opportunity in order to deliver on the bulk of the reform agenda, but also stress the importance of Albanian civil society finding its voice and making it count in the policies and actions pursued by leaders. Moreover, they maintain that the EU should help Albania to help itself by means of more pre-emptive and context-sensitive policies.