Albanien ansökte om EU-medlemskap

Albanian Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, described the relation with Greece as "excellent" on Monday, after a meeting with his Greek counterpart, Kostas Karamanlis, in Tirana.

The two leaders met to sign an agreement which delineates the continental shelf border in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Albania.

"Athens will back Albania’s EU integration perspective," said Karamanlis in a joint press conference with Berisha.

Karamanlis’ visit follows last week's sentencing of an ethnically Greek mayor in Albania'a Southern town of Himara, to a six month prison sentence for destroying road signs because they were not posted in Greek language.

"I assured PM Karamanlis that the Albanian government will do its utmost to back the Greek minority that exists in the country," said Berisha.

Albania recently became a member of NATO, and is expected to file for EU candidacy status on Tuesday, a move to which Greek support would be critical in overcoming skepticism some EU capitals hold against further expansion.

http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/18468/

Relations between Albania and Montenegro are very good, and are constantly improving on all levels. A good example are the meetings of two countries' highest officials that took place during the recent visit of president Mojsiua (the president of Albania) to Montenegro, which is in a historical sense the first visit of an Albanian president to Montenegro. This visit was a follow-up to a successful visit of the president Vujanović to Tirana, six months ago.

http://www.gom.cg.yu/eng/mininos/vijesti.php?akcija=vijesti&id=7071

Political and economic relations between Albania and Macedonia
The most important events in relations between Macedonia and Albania in the last
decade have been:
• the fall of communism in Albania and the opening of its borders to the free flow of
goods and people
• Albanian recognition of Macedonia as an independent state (but not under its con-
stitutional name)
• signing of a free trade agreement
• signing of an agreement on educational, academic and technical co-operation, in-
cluding the mutual recognition of university diplomas
• joint participation in Corridor 8 and AMBO projects.
Factors that have had a positive impact on bilateral relations between Macedonia and
Albania include:
• common projects on the basis of regional co-operation
• involvement of the EU in the region and its insistence on bilateral and regional co-
operation
• the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to improve economic and diplomatic relations and work jointly towards their faster membership in the European Union and NATO.

The agreement to improve relations between the two countries came during the official visit of Albanian Premier Sali Berisha to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on Tuesday. During the visit Berisha met the chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers Nikola Spiric.


http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/17623/

In April 2009, both countries became full members of NATO at an event which both Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader attended.Also that year, the two countries decided to build a joint Nuclear Power Plant on the Albanian border with Montenegro. This decision was greeted warily by the government of Montenegro, which is worried about the plant's environmental impact. The two have a history of defense pacts, and overall theirs is a good relationship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania%E2%80%93Croatia_relations

Albanian–Kosovan relations are foreign relations between Albania and Kosovo. When Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 17 February 2008, Albania became one of the first countries to announce officially about recognition of sovereign Kosovo. Also Albania was the only country which recognized Republic of Kosova in 1990. Albania has an embassy in Pristina. Kosovo has an embassy in Tirana. There are 2,000,000 Albanians living in Kosovo (93% of Kosovo's population) and Albanian is one of the official languages of Kosovo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania%E2%80%93Kosovo_relations