Freedom House has published the annual report "Nations in Transit 2011" which  analyzes the progress' level of Albania in terms of democratization in important areas such as: National Democratic Governance; Electoral Process; Civil Society; Independent Media; Local Democratic Governance; Judicial Framework and Independence; and Corruption, areas which are crucial to the fulfilment of the Copenhagen political criteria. It is the fourth consecutive year that EMA research staff works with Freedom House to produce this report.

Unfortunately Albania’s democracy score was worsened from 3.93 to 4.04 reaching the score level of 2005. The downward trends are related to: Electoral Process, National Democratic Governance and Local Democratic Governance. The rating concerning Judicial Framework and Independence; Corruption, Independent Media and Civil Society remained unchanged.

"Nations in Transit 2011" is the 15th edition of Freedom House’s comprehensive, comparative study of democratic development in 29 countries from Central Europe to Eurasia. The overarching conclusion is that in the Balkans, Croatia and Serbia made modest progress as part of their efforts toward EU accession, but five other countries suffered declines.