Friday, June 22, 2012

Due to the paramount importance to both country and region’s development perspectives the study of European integration issues has become central at the Albanian School of Political Studies. The aim of the 4th course was to enhance the knowledge and the understanding of the programme participants on the European integration process and the EU enlargement as its inherent part. On 22-24 June, the national course on Albania and the trends of European Integration was organised in Pogradec. The course was composed of three main modules:
The first module EU Common Foreign and Security Policy sought to introduce the participants with one of the most important pillars of the European Union, the common foreign and security policy. A special focus was given to the Arab spring and the role of the EU diplomacy in the democratic transition developments in the MENA countries.  The guest speaker for this session was Mr. Alexis Vahlas, Associate Professor at University of Strasbourg and Political Adviser to the Commander of French Air Defense and Air Force Operations.
A short introduction focusing on the current integration phase/challenges of European Union as an entity sui-generis was made by Mr. Clive Rumbold, Head of Political, economic and information section in the Delegation of EU in Albania. Mr. Rumbold also responded to the interest of the participants by sharing his views actual political situation in Albania and the 12 key priorities that Albania should fulfill in order to receive the status of EU candidate country and open accession talks.
Ms. Grida Duma, Deputy Minister of European Integration and Mr. Ditmir Bushati, Chairman of the European Integration parliamentary committee, provided a detailed overview of Albania’s path towards the EU by scrutinizing the pre-accession mechanism and the requirements for the Candidate Status and touching upon concrete issues of the integration process.