By Zoltán Dujisin
TIRANA, Feb 21 2008 (IPS)

Albanians are optimistic they will join NATO and draw closer to the dream of EU membership.

Albania, together with Macedonia and Croatia, is expected to receive an invitation for membership in the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) April summit in Bucharest.

“There is no political decision yet but we have reasons to be optimistic, this is good for NATO too,” Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli told IPS.

Popular support for NATO and EU membership hovers around 90-95 percent.

Political elites, which have shown exceptional unity when it comes to Euro-Atlantic integration, see in NATO membership a guarantee for a stable democracy, economic growth and foreign investment. But above all they hope it will serve as a stepping stone towards the EU.

In 1992 Albania was the first post-communist country to publicly announce its NATO membership bid. Now it believes it has a strong argument.

“Albania has played a decisive and moderating role during these years in Macedonia and Kosovo, and this has been appreciated,” Topalli told IPS. “Without our influence the region could not live with peace and stability.”

Albania enjoys the U.S.’s open support for its membership bid in appreciation for Tirana’s readiness to cooperate with U.S. military operations in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan from the outset.

Growing Russian influence in the Balkans and a wish to stabilise one of the most volatile regions in Europe might also help the Western Balkan nations’ case for NATO membership, Remzi Lani, executive director of the Albanian Media Institute told IPS.

“I believe NATO is close. The only problem could be the dispute between Greece and Macedonia over the latter’s name, because we won’t get the invitation if Macedonia doesn’t.”

In spite of some persisting institutional and legal problems, the country’s military has taken steps towards modernisation, and the budget share of military sending has been brought up to 2 percent, in line with NATO requirements.

The EU is certainly further away, and Albanians don’t expect it before 2020, but the signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in 2006 and the possibility of NATO membership are seen as steps in the right direction.

“NATO is also a political organisation. Joining it will improve our image, security, and it will bring investments,” Lani told IPS. “We will be taken more seriously, and it will make it easier to join the other Western club, the EU.”

The drive by the country of 3.6 million to join the EU will take some time, but it will also give Tirana time to improve its image in Europe and dispel the EU’s fears of further enlargement rounds.

Problems with the country’s minorities, corruption, political infighting and a weak judiciary and electoral system have been the main targets of foreign criticism.

“Albania is a democracy but not a perfect one, our standards are not yet European,” says Lani, who calls for a process of “normalisation” of the country’s institutions and services, particularly in the health and education sectors.

The analyst claims Albanians are not as corrupt as they accuse each other to be, and that there are more similarities than differences with problems faced by other Eastern European countries.

“The real test will be elections,” he says. “We have weak states and institutions, and for the EU that’s a bigger problem than our poverty.”

Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 5,700 dollars, and 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is also at 30 percent.

Brussels has acknowledged some progress, especially in the fight against organised crime, and it has welcomed the government’s initiatives aimed at curbing corruption.

Albania’s Parliamentary Speaker described to IPS some of the recent improvements: “There have been concrete results in fighting corruption, we have computerised the administration, and we are very focused on the judicial system,” Topalli said.

Together with a fall in public perception of government corruption, the business climate has also improved, and there are ambitious plans to dramatically increase the inflow of foreign investment to Albania.

“Revenues have increased by 30 percent thanks to fighting fiscal evasion while at the same time we cut taxes by half, and while before you needed 36 days to open a business, now 24 hours is enough,” the Speaker said.

Lani says the government will have to accelerate reforms if it wishes to join even in the long term, but Topalli is more optimistic.

“If you look at our starting point 17 years ago, I don’t think any other country has had such a great transformation as Albania,” the Speaker told IPS. “It is a stable country, with a stable macroeconomic situation, a sustainable economic growth, and many prestigious and serious foreign investors interested in the energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors.”

The Parliamentary Speaker took the opportunity to make a case also for its neighbours and fellow applicants: “There is an increased awareness that Europe is not complete without the Western Balkans, and it is not only geographically in Europe, it is also in its roots, orientation and culture,” Topalli said.

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