The EU Swedish Presidency and its implications to the enlargement process of the Western Balkans

On 16 October 2009, European Movement in Albania (EMA) in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organized a policy forum on”The EU Swedish Presidency and its implications to the enlargement process of the Western Balkans”.The key speaker in this policy forum was Mrs. Elisabeth Stam, Sweden Representative in Albania who shared with participants the priorities of EU Swedish Presidency and its approach for Western Balkans.

During her speech, Mrs. Stam spotted out some very sensitive issues for Albania and Western Balkan countries such as visa liberalization and the EU accession process.

 Regarding the visa liberalization issue, Mrs. Stam emphasized that: “Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina were not included in the Commission proposal as they first have to meet the outstanding conditions and receive a positive Commission assessment and subsequent proposal for visa liberalization”. In this context, she highlighted the statement of the Swedish Foreign Minister, Mr. Carl Bildt on 21 July: “the citizens of the countries not proposed for visa liberalization are the victims of the inability by their political leaders to take the necessary decision in order to meet the requirements such as the introduction of the biometric passports”. On the presumption that European Commission proposals are affected by the presence of Muslim population in these countries, Ms. Stam replied: “it look like an easy way for politicians to distract from their own shortcomings by pointing the finger at Brussels. But acting in this way in the Balkan region on issues concerning ethnicity and religion is not only wrong but dangerous and cannot be tolerated”.

Another hot topic touched upon by the Sweden Representative in Tirana was the Albanian application for EU membership, which was linked with the parliamentary election process. In her view, Albania has been gradually moving toward the European Integration and her expectations for the future of Albania into EU were positive. During her speech, Mrs. Stam emphasized, “We hope that the EU foreign ministers will reach an agreement to forward Albania’s membership application to the Commission for its assessment.” According to the parliamentary election, she said that although positive assessment in general, unfortunately they were marked with political interference in the post election process.

During his speech, Mr. Michael Weichert, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Director for Albania, brought to the attention of the participants that: “This is an important moment for the relations between EU and Western Balkans and in order to stimulate further enlargement process of this region a second Thessaloniki is needed (reference to the European Council meeting in Thessaloniki in 2003)”.

During this forum, Mr. Gledis Gjipali, Executive Director at European Movement (EMA) presented the policy brief entitled “The EU Swedish Presidency and its implication to the enlargement process of Western Balkans”, prepared by EMA team of policy researchers. The aim of the policy brief is to provide a clear picture of the EU Swedish Presidency priorities and its approach towards Western Balkan countries, Albanian in particular. Two important moments analysed in the policy brief are: The process of Visa Liberalization and Albania’s application for EU membership.

Here you can download EMA’s policy brief “The EU Swedish Presidency and its implication to the enlergement ptocess of the Western Balkans” in both English and Albanian languages: