Albania's political and economic developments according to the Copenhagen criteria

Abstract

The collapse of the communist regime and the establishment of political democracy started a new page for Albania. By undertaking economic and political reforms, Albania begun to establish politic and economic relations with the European Union. Membership to the EU would be Albania's one way towards the fully democratization of the country and recover its tired economy isolated by the communist regime. This thesis examines the main pillars that Albania has to fulfill to be integrated in the European Union and meet the membership criteria. It analyzes mainly the economical and the political components of the Copenhagen criteria in relation to the Albanian's performance. Finally it measures at what extent Albania has fulfilled such criteria by using the discourse analysis approach.