The EU in the service of Albania: the other side of the coin

Type Journal Article
Title The EU in the service of Albania: the other side of the coin
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2010
URL http://www.kppcenter.org/WBPReview2010-1-1-AndriaEtAl.pdf
Abstract
This work is conceived inside an economic and political framework. In particular this study examines the impact of interventions promoted by some international organizations, representatives of theEuropean Union, like the EIB - the main international financial institution in the Western Balkansregarding the volume of activity, that today is of about 6 billion Euros - in a country, as Albania, thathave all the required characteristics to be recognized - thanks to the many social and politicaltransformations that lasted for about two decades - as a civilized and democratic country.The starting point of this analysis is quite different if not opposite to the most common ideas concerningthe non-admission of Albania in the European Union. In fact we will face the determinants that hamperthe entry in the EU. Our question is: Why the \"Land of the Eagles\" is not yet a member of the EU 27despite the existence of a number of programs and proposed funding already allocated and in favor ofit? The answer could lies in the lack of development of a civil society: although these issues concerning the Western Balkans could be date back to the '90s now, these have assumed a new dimension. Insidethe Enlargement Strategy of the 2007, the European Commission has in fact identified the developmentof a civil society as one of the key reform priorities for the future access of these countries.From this background the objective of this work is to show, following an assessment of the trends of poverty proposed by the Living Standards Measurement Living (LSML) in Albania for the period 2002-2008, the absence of a link between exclusion from the EU and the economic situation of a country that, among others, has made in recent years significant progress towards certain requirements crucial to proceed in the path of European integration.

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