NATO invitation a "victory" for Albania

11/04/2008

Bloggers welcome the Alliance's decision as a milestone for the Balkan country, while noting that challenges lie ahead.

By Klodjan Seferaj for Southeast European Times – 11/04/08

[Getty Images]

Meeting in Bucharest last week, NATO members decided to extend invitations to two countries in Southeast Europe -- Albania and Croatia. For Albania, still reeling from a munitions explosion outside the capital, the news was a major morale-booster.

Tempering the sense of triumph, however, is an awareness of the challenges that lie ahead. Writing on the blog shekulli, Arben notes that the invitation comes with specific and unavoidable requirements.

"Albania must fulfil all its obligations in order to earn full NATO membership as soon as possible," Arben writes. In addition, he adds, the country must "accomplish all the important reforms that accelerate entrance into the EU. Our country has to address all those problems."

Gjovalin Hasani agrees on the need for action. "We have to think how to make Albania more beautiful and safer and how to attract new investment. We can't lose time doing nothing. Albania's membership in the EU and in NATO [will be] our biggest victory after the one on November 28th 1912."

One of the most serious issues facing Albania is economic development. Writing on peshkupauje this week, Gre discusses the conclusions of an expert team led by economist Hernando de Soto and his Institute for Liberty and Democracy.

Commissioned by the Berisha administration, the de Soto team's report said that up to 90% of business and property assets in Albania are "extralegal" -- forming part of the black or grey economy.

As a result, many Albanians find themselves outside the legal system and are unable to obtain loans, buy insurance, or expand their business activities beyond a limited network of personal contacts.

"The majority of the Albanians have properties and businesses situated on government property," Gre notes. "Around 92% of Albanians consider themselves owners, but their properties are illegal, meaning that they are unidentified and lack proper representation. Only 19.6% of the Albanians have title to their properties. Houses valued at $17.1 billion remain unproductive, dead capital."

Finish comments: "The properties are UNIDENTIFIED? No, no -- the properties are identified, but the government doesn't want to give them back to the former owners. The strongmen took them. Here I include the politicians, who also seized the properties from the former owners."