change font size

print version

copyright

Other languages:

Albania Seeks Firm NATO Entry Date

22 02 2006  Tirana, Zagreb and Skopje urge Washington to commit to letting them join the club in 2008.

By Andi Balla in Tirana (Balkan Insight, 22 Feb 06)

Albania’s foreign minister and his Croatian and Macedonian counterparts returned from Washington last week with a pledge from the United States government to support their joint bid for NATO membership.

However, a firm commitment for the Adriatic Charter member states to join by 2008 remained elusive.

American officials said the three countries had made good progress towards meeting NATO standards.

But Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s third most senior official, added that they needed to do more to strengthen democracy and fight corruption.

Burns added that NATO knows Albania, Croatia and Macedonia want to join as soon as possible, but said the alliance had not set a definite date for them to become members.

NATO officials have regularly dodged questions about whether 2008 was a firm target for the three countries to join the alliance. NATO’s Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in January restated that the door remains open for new members, but he refused to discuss possible entry dates.

Albania’s foreign minister, Besnik Mustafaj, said in Washington that NATO’s open-doors policy was a factor in driving forward reforms in the country.

A message that the country could join in 2008, he said, “would encourage us more than anything else to deepen democratic reforms”.

Mustafaj said Tirana was taking steps not only to reform the military but to strengthen the country’s institutions and legal system.


NATO officials point out that membership is not important solely in providing military security but in cementing a member state’s overall political and social stability.

Membership obliges states to respect political and economic standards, including free and fair elections and the rule of law, and to combat organised crime and corruption and build up government structures underpinned by viable tax and customs revenues.

Measured against those criteria, NATO officials admit Tirana still has some work to do. The country has made progress on the military side, for example, but has not yet transformed the armed forces from a communist-style conscript army to a professional force, which can be harmonised with NATO.

Among issues yet to be resolved is the percentage of budget spent on defence, which, despite small annual increases, is seen as too low.

NATO’s case for delay is that if it allows in new members before those members are ready, it loses all leverage over them to ensure they meet the club’s requirements.

To give a helping hand to the three countries – who signed up to the Adriatic Charter with the US in 2003 – NATO teams regularly visit them to assess the pace of military and political reforms.

Albania’s defence minister, Fatmir Mediu, said last month that the Albanian armed forces were working to implement reforms necessary in order to meet NATO membership standards, and that more reforms would take place in 2006 and 2007.

“In 2008 the NATO Summit will be held and Albania expects an invitation to membership,” he said. “This remains our major objective.”

A new rapid intervention battalion, of a type typically used for peacekeeping missions, has just been established and by the end of 2008 Albania will have three such battalions, Mediu added.

Albania’s president, Alfred Moisiu, said Albania, Croatia and Macedonia had already, “transformed themselves from states that once consumed security into countries that now produce security.”

For example, Albania has taken part in NATO-led operations in Afghanistan and is part of the US-led coalition in Iraq. It also has a small peacekeeping contingent under German command in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Moisiu, a former army general, is one of the strongest proponents of NATO membership and until he was elected president, headed the Albanian Atlantic Association, which promotes reforms in line with NATO membership.

Moisiu told parliament last year that in addition to getting the military ready, Albania needed to speed up other reforms opening the way for membership of NATO and, later, the European Union.

Moreover, there is a cross-party consensus over the need to meet these targets with both the ruling and opposition parties agreeing fully with the leadership on the matter.

Nicholas Pano, an Albanian American scholar, said it was now up to the country to prove it was worthy of international confidence.

“What Albania needs to do to join NATO has been spelled out on many occasions and the Albanians have been given a fair amount of … assistance to achieve those ends,” he said. “Now more efforts are needed on the part of the Albanians to realize these objectives.”

Pano said Albania needed to work harder on the rule of law and combating corruption in particular, “to show it is really capable of assuming the responsibilities of NATO membership.”

He added, “Many people in Albania do not seem to understand that this [NATO membership] entails responsibilities as well as a protective umbrella.”

However, the foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia said in Washington that they had fully grasped this point.

Neven Mimica, chair of the Croatian parliament’s integration commission, said in Tirana earlier this month that it was still realistic to hope all three could join in 2008.

NATO membership was a milestone on the way to meeting another major goal for the three countries, namely membership of the EU, he pointed out.


“NATO membership improves military capacity and military preparedness,” he said. “But it also encompasses the political environment that makes many reforms easier related to EU accession, too,” he added.

Andi Balla is managing editor of Tirana Times, a weekly English-language newspaper, and a Balkan Insight contributor. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s internet publication.