Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been a champion of European integration for years, began to fall behind significantly in the past decade, and in Brussels they believe that Albania is now far ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has the opportunity to join the EU earlier.
According to the data of the European Commission, Albania had its first intergovernmental conference with the EU in July 2022, which is a step that BiH could possibly receive in March of this year, but under the condition that there is a serious acceleration of reforms.
In November last year, Albania completed the screening process, which is the next step after the start of negotiations.
BiH, even in the most optimistic scenario, cannot start the screening before the summer, and that is on the condition that it starts negotiations in March, which is far from certain.
According to the statements of several analysts dealing with European integration, this year’s report on Albania’s progress is one of the best in history.
Unlike her, BH. the report is full of statements about missed opportunities and lack of implementation of reforms.
As a European diplomat who served in Albania recently told us, that country has implemented a major reform of the justice system. Out of 805 open cases on the verification of holders of judicial positions, as many as 794 were successfully completed.
According to the report of the independent commission, which carried out a check under the supervision of the European Commission, 19 cases were forwarded for criminal prosecution, thus fulfilling a key European recommendation.
In addition, Albania took a leading role in European integration in the region, overtaking even Serbia.
Last year, it organized the summit of the Western Balkans and the EU, which is an opportunity that Bosnia and Herzegovina missed a month ago because the tender for the organization of that event in Neum failed.
The EU report praised Albania for embarking on modernization of its critical infrastructure, including the construction of a 400 kV transmission line, which it believes could prevent the country from collapsing its power system, such as the one this summer when power went out in much of the region.
Unlike Albania, there is no construction of new networks in B&H, and thermal power plants on exhalation have not been replaced by hydropower potentials, although several projects, such as Buk Bijela, have been ready for implementation for more than a decade.
Albania has fully aligned its foreign policy with the EU, which BiH, although formally aligned, has not yet fully implemented due to internal blockades.
Albania is also one of the countries that most successfully prepared a program of reforms as part of the Growth Plan worth six billion euros. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in the region that has not even submitted the reforms, let alone received the initial funds to start the reforms. Although BiH could theoretically count on around one billion euros, in case the obstructions and dysfunctionality continue, the money earmarked for BiH could be transferred to other countries in the future.
However, it should also be noted that Albania also has major problems that BiH does not have. For example, opposition parties in Tirana have been demanding the resignation of the government for months due to corruption and violations of the law.
They accuse the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama of authoritarian behavior and demand the democratization of the country, and several times there has been physical violence in the parliament.
To what extent Albania will manage to solve these problems remains to be seen, but the indisputable fact is that this country is one of the favorites, after Montenegro, to become the next member of the bloc, they write. Independent newspaper.
