Albania kicks off EU membership talks despite political turmoil at home

Albania will open its first chapter of accession talks with the European Union on Tuesday in Luxembourg, as it aims to make headway in its decade-long bid to join the 27-country bloc.

Tuesday’s accession conference will be the second held between the EU and Albania since it became a candidate country in 2014. It will allow Brussels to scrutinise the so-called ‘fundamentals’ of accession, including how the country aligns with human rights, the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions.

Talks on these issues will continue until the very end of the accession negotiations, and progress in implementing Brussels’ demands will determine the overall pace of the process.

The talks were approved by EU ambassadors in late September after Albania was decoupled from neighbouring North Macedonia in its accession bid, amid what is considered a resurgence of tensions between Skopje’s nationalist government and its EU neighbours.

The talks could see Tirana join Montenegro as a “frontrunner” of countries bidding to join the bloc, the EU’s ambassador to Albania, Silvio Gonzato, told Euronews.

“Albania does not have a plan B,” Gonzato said in September. “There is a clear cross-party consensus on bringing Albania into the EU.”

But the accession talks come as domestic pressure mounts on Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has governed since 2013 and overseen his country’s consolidation as a leading EU candidate country.

Opposition supporters took to Albanian streets last week calling for Rama to step down after a member of the pro-EU, conservative Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha was imprisoned on convictions of slander.

The opposition claims Rama is ruling with an iron fist, silencing critics and abusing his power to diminish political rivals. Berisha himself is under house arrest for allegations regarding corruption in his previous governments.

Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor of a southern Albanian town and MEP, was released from prison last month after being held on charges of vote-buying, allegations that were heavily contested by Greece.

His release helped secure Athens’ approval for the opening of accession talks, a decision which requires the unanimous approval of all member states.

In Brussels, Rama remains a reference in the Western Balkans as EU officials aim to inject fresh impetus into the EU’s dormant enlargement policy, which has been parachuted to the top of the political agenda following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Talks to address corruption

One of the bones of contention in talks is likely to be measures taken by Tirana to tackle persistently high levels of corruption.

In its annual assessment of candidates’ progress towards EU membership, the European Commission stated last November that: “Despite some progress and continued efforts in fighting corruption, it remains an area of serious concern.”

An annual review by the US State Department in 2023 found that “corruption existed in all branches and levels of government.”

An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Euronews that corruption was pervasive across all aspects of public life and posed a huge challenge to Albania’s EU integration.

Rama has set an ambition to be accession-ready by the end of this decade, prioritising the fight against corruption and organised crime in his reform agenda.

“In the past Albania has been commended for what it has been delivering on the fight against corruption and organised crime,” Iliriana Gjoni, analyst at think tank Carnegie Europe, told Euronews. “It still needs to do a lot more. It needs to deliver more as well on of protecting the fundamental rights, freedom of media and freedom of expression.”

But Albania’s firm commitment to aligning with the bloc’s foreign policy is likely to help move along its bid: “Albania is fully aligned with the EU on all the sanctions, on all matters of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy,” Gjoni said.

“It has been a NATO member for the longest time among the Western Balkan countries ever since 2009,” she added.

Brussels bets on cash-for-reforms strategy

The EU executive is hoping its new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans can speed up what is a notoriously long accession progress. EU investments worth €6 billion will be injected into the seven Western Balkan candidate countries over the next three years in return for reforms designed to bring their economies and societies closer to the EU.

The €6 billion – which consists of €2 billion in grants and €4 billion in concessional loans – will be distributed according to each country’s GDP and population, but only made available once they have implemented so-called ‘reform agendas’ designed to align their laws, standards and practices with those of the EU.

Countries that fail to hit their reform targets could see the funds allocated to them diverted to other countries in the Western Balkans region.

EU sources say the model is designed to create “competition” between neighbours and incentivise quicker reforms.

An EU official confirmed that month that the funds earmarked for Serbia and Kosovo will be blocked and diverted to other countries unless both sides commit to the EU-facilitated dialogue aimed at normalising their relations.