EU Urges Albania to Strengthen Rule of Law

“Albania is implementing smoothly the SAA [Stabilisation and Association Agreement] it signed with the EU in late 2006.The key political reforms are progressing, including electoral reform. It will also need to strengthen the rule of law and build administrative capacity,” Rehn told a news conference in Brussels ahead of the publishing of the European Commission's 2008 Progress Report on Albania. The conference was broadcast live on the European Commission Audiovisual Service.

One of Albania’s key challenges ahead will be the handling of the 2009 election, Rehn added.

The efforts to strengthen the rule of law have intensified during 2008, the European Commission said in the report. Albania has continued to make progress on consolidating democracy and in the privatisation of the state assets in the energy sector, it added.

Albania's quick economic growth was accompanied by a widening trade gap, which is weakening the country’s external financing position, the Commission said.