Roundtable Discussion: Rule of law – EU accession’s Achilles heel

On March 29 at EU House in Tirana, Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) organized a roundtable discussion on the topic “Rule of law – EU accession’s Achilles heel”. The focus of this event was to discuss the findings of the Albanian benchmarking analysis in frame of the project ‘Benchmarking for EU Reform – How effective?, implemented by the Think for Europe Network members, and financed by the European Fund for the Balkans.

More precisely, this event gathered experts, government and civil society representatives, opinion-makers and other stakeholders to discuss:

• Challenges of EU’s conditionality and its transformative power
• The interplay and synergies between the accession and rule of law reforms
• The way forward for Albania in the light of EC’s Flagship initiatives.

In addition, the panelists also shared their views regarding Albania’s position vis-a-vis the EU Enlargement Strategy, with a particular focus on the reforms needed in the upcoming years. At the beginning of the discussion, IDM representative, Gjergji Vurmo talked about the Challenges of EU’s transformative power, the importance of rule of law in Albania, and the significant role that EU conditionality has on implementing reforms in Albania. Following his remarks, Ms. Artela Mitrushi presented the country analysis entitled ‘Bencher-(In)Effectiveness of EC Monitoring Mechanisms’. This analysis assesses the effectiveness of the EU’s benchmarking system on a selected policy issues pertaining to ‘fundamentals first’. This analysis also puts forward a set of recommendations on how to improve the benchmarking mechanism of the conditionality policy.

The round table is part of the Think and Link Regional Policy Programme, supported by the European Fund for the Balkans and Open Society Institute, under the umbrella of Think for Europe Network (TEN).

Panelists:

• Aldo Bumci, MP – Parliamentary Committee of European Integration
• Rafaella Campanati, First Secretary – Italian Embassy in Tirana
• Afrim Krasniqi, Executive Director of Albanian Institute for Political Studies – ISP
• Besar Likmeta, Editor for BIRN Albania

Click to download relevant publications:

• Country analysis  ‘Bencher-(In)Effectiveness of EC Monitoring Mechanisms’ Eng – Country analysis ‘Bencher-(In)Effectiveness of EC Monitoring Mechanisms’ & Alb – Bencher – (Pa) Efektshmëria e Mekanizmave Vlerësues të KE-së
• Regional Analysis ‘Bencher-(In)Effectiveness of EC Monitoring Mechanisms in the WB’