Overeenkomst met EU markeert eerste stap op weg naar toetreding Albanië (en)

The EU has taken the first legal step toward Albanian accession by signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Tirana on Monday (12 June).

Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha called the move "the opening of a new horizon for the future of the Albanian people and the end of a 15 years' long transition period" Balkans agency DTT-NET.COM says.

"The signature of this agreement is a milestone on Albania's road to European standards," Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik stated, praising progress on democratic and economic reform as well as anti-corruption efforts.

The SAA must now be ratified by the EU bloc's 25 national parliaments before it enters into force, but an interim agreement on trade signed the same day will enable trade-related SAA clauses to immediately kick-in.

Albania shook off 47 years of Stalinist rule shortly after 1990, being one of the most isolated countries in Europe under Enver Hoxha from 1944 to 1985.

Today it is still one of the poorest with a GDP per capita half that of Bulgaria and almost one tenth that of the UK, with Brussels adding that Tirana has plenty left to do.

EU ministers urged Albania to push ahead with reforms, focusing on: press freedom, property rights, institution building, respect for ethnic minorities and observing international standards in municipal elections.

Albania began the SAA talks in 2003 and joins Croatia and Macedonia as the only other Western Balkan states to seal the deal.

Similar talks are ongoing with Bosnia and Montenegro, but talks with Serbia have been frozen over Belgrade's alleged sheltering of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, with EU authorities on Monday renewing calls for cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Montenegro had been in the same boat as Serbia, but split from the Serbian state union after a 21 May referendum, formally declaring independence on 3 June.

Monday also saw the EU give official recognition to Montenegro, joining the US, Iceland, Switzerland, Russia, Croatia and Macedonia, but not Serbia, in so doing.

"The European Union and its member states have decided that they will develop further their relations with the Republic of Montenegro as a sovereign independent state," an EU foreign ministers' statement read.

Meanwhile, Croatia on 12 June opened the science and research chapter of its EU accession talks, amid complaints that the EU's internal debate on the constitution has slowed down enlargement progress in the region.