Suchergebnisse

The Republic of Albania is committed to respect the general principles of democracy and fundamental human rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and itself commits to promote cooperation and good neighbourhood relations with countries of the region, through signing a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements. In the framework of interaction and intensification of relations with the European Union, in view of democratization and transformation of the Albanian society, in accordance with European values and principles, it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement which clearly determined purposes and priorities that will be kept in mind by the Albanian state on its path towards the European Union. This paper aims to present the approach of the Albanian environmental legislation with EU environmental law framework to identify to what extent this legislation is approximate. The results achieved are that Albania still needs to do more in the process of harmonization of legislation with European legislation and its implementation. Overall, preparations in the field of environment are at an early stage, highlighting the shortcomings of administrative capacity and funds.

The accession strategy based on the conditionality principle has turned out to be the European Union (EU)'s most successful external governance tool. It provides the civilian power EU with the means to Europeanize the continent, that is, to project her identity beyond the borders, making acceding countries similar to herself. Yet, the South-East European (SEE) enlargement currently suffers from defections, fake compliance, and blockades. The case of Serbia is particularly interesting, since Serbia holds the key to providing peace and stability to the entire region. The research question therefore reads: To what extent has the EU's conditionality strategy been effective in the Serbian case? The theoretical argument is based on identity theory. In this perspective, the EU's (problematic) behaviour vis-à-vis Serbia stems from her uneasiness to come to terms with the 'near other' of the Western Balkans. Conversely, Serbia still struggles to find her place in Europe. In order to highlight this identity mismatch, the negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) will be examined in detail. It will be demonstrated how the Kosovo question and the war criminals' affair overshadow Serbia's accession. The hypothesis is that the EU's conditionality strategy is overstrained since the EU pursues too many different goals and the EU's inconsistent rhetoric resonates badly in the Serbian discourse. As a consequence, the conditionality principle has degenerated to a policy of farce.

The European Union (EU) represents a certain partnership and alliance between states and countries. It is not governed as the United States of America, nor intergoverned as the United Nations. Member States of the EU are sovereign countries united to become privileged and globally successful. Every enlargement of the Union is significant, but the fifth enlargement has been recognised, so far, as the most significant, showing the unification of Eastern and Western Europe. However, the most significant enlargement is yet to come with the Western Balkan countries becoming Member States of the EU (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia), considering the political and economic situation of the region. The European Commission has proposed the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) for South East Europe, as the most significant frame for the EU to ensure relations with the Western Balkan countries and to direct its overall enlargement policy to this part of Europe. Associations of the Western Balkans are usually negative, referring to weak economic development, wars and political instability, which have led to the pre-accession strategy for the EU membership known as the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). The aim of this paper is to present the progress of the Western Balkan countries towards the EU membership, their current state, and the problems they face on that path and to explain the SAP and the SAA.

The role of the European Union (EU) trade liberalisation with the Western Balkans — namely Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia — is overestimated, as major benefits could be expected mainly from institutional reforms rather than trade creation and economic perspective due to low economic development and a lack of comparative advantages in these countries.1 The core issue to be addressed in this article is whether these firms can exploit the opportunities arising from the EU integration process. The aim of this article is to confirm the hypothesis that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and trade agreements in the Western Balkans are not sufficient pre-conditions for successful performance and increase of exports by local firms; the main focus should be on the internal performance of firms. The paper analyses and compares the data collected by surveys conducted with local firms in Kosovo in order to measure the impact of the SAA. Finally, the article suggests that in the short and medium run the SAA could support and improve the quality of products, technical standards, and firm competitiveness as a pre-condition for better access to the EU market in the long run. ; The role of the European Union (EU) trade liberalisation with the Western Balkans — namely Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia — is overestimated, as major benefits could be expected mainly from institutional reforms rather than trade creation and economic perspective due to low economic development and a lack of comparative advantages in these countries.1 The core issue to be addressed in this article is whether these firms can exploit the opportunities arising from the EU integration process. The aim of this article is to confirm the hypothesis that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and trade agreements in the Western Balkans are not sufficient pre-conditions for successful performance and increase of exports by local firms; the main focus should be on the internal performance of firms. The paper analyses and compares the data collected by surveys conducted with local firms in Kosovo in order to measure the impact of the SAA. Finally, the article suggests that in the short and medium run the SAA could support and improve the quality of products, technical standards, and firm competitiveness as a pre-condition for better access to the EU market in the long run.

In 2012 the Nobel Committee awarded the European Union (EU) its Peace Prize. It commemorated the building and sustaining of peace between Europeans, a process in which the Nobel Committee proposed that the EU and its predecessors had played an important part. It explicitly commen-ded the Union's success in repeatedly reconciling a divided continent and complemented its efforts to build peace beyond its borders. But does the EU (continue to) deserve such praise? This contribution examines European peacebuilding from the early inte-gration of post-World War Two economies, through the uniting of Europe after the Cold War to contemporary conflict management efforts in the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood. The purpose of this endeavour is to examine whether lessons from the European experience can be observed that may facilitate future regional stabilisation processes – within and beyond the Union.

Following more than one decade of violent and uncertain transitions in the Balkans, the EU has envisaged a new strategy comprising the perspective of membership for all the countries in the region. The so-called Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) has become a word of faith loaded with high expectations for change. This paper seeks to analyze the potential of the SAP to foster promised transformation in the region. The paper proceeds in three parts. First, it elaborates on different forms of post-cold war interventions in the region; Second, it outlines the main instruments of the SAP. Third, it delves into the innovative features of the SAP compared to the previous enlargement framework and analyses the implications of these innovations. The paper suggests that the SAP is an undisputed progress compared to the EU previous strategies in the region to the extent it has for the first time embraced the promise of membership and outlined the procedures of accession for all the countries left out of the previous enlargement. Yet, the analysis puts forward that the SAP suffers from the overloaded and not easily reconcilable double agenda including both stabilisation and association objectives. In addition, the SAP commitment to membership is rather vague compared to the previous framework of enlargement. Overall, those features might emasculate the transformative power of the EU enlargement strategy in the region since extensive conditionalities correspond to merely weaker incentives. Moreover, the ambiguity of membership inherent in the SAP, leaves it to the dynamics within the EU to mould the speed and the tone of the eventual enlargement. It cannot certainly be taken for granted as long as the EU suffers from the enlargement fatique and member countries keep resisting further enlargement.

In this paper research we want to present the new low reforming in public administration system in Albania.Like any robust reform process, we face significant challenges across a spectrum of efforts. Designing country strategies was more time and labor intensive than originally anticipated, particularly because a large number of partners were engaged in the process to determine tough trade-offs. In the year ahead, we will continue to prioritize the development of country strategies and enable better coordination with our partners to reconcile competing priorities and focus on areas where we each have a comparative advantage. Regular political and economic dialogue between the EU and the country has continued through the SAA structures. The Stabilisation and Association Committee and Council met in March and April 2013 respectively. Meetings of six subcommittees and a meeting of the special group on public administration reform were held. Albania participates in the multilateral economic dialogue with the Commission and the EU Member States to prepare the country for participation in multilateral surveillance and economic policy coordination under the EU's Economic and Monetary Union Our effort to focus our assistance programs has been successful for the past two years either because we successfully exited from sustainable projects or because our programming was too minimal to have a true impact. As we look ahead, we must continue to make tough choices and use each country's strategy as the backbone for decision-making to ensure the greatest development impact. DOI:10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p358