The European Commission should begin assessing Albania’s application for membership in the European Union, the Union’s foreign ministers decided yesterday.

The ministers’ referral of Albania’s application, submitted on 28 April, to the Commission is the first step on the way to membership talks. The Commission’s assessment normally takes around one year to complete.

The referral is a political sign of willingness on the part of the EU’s member states. Albania will, however, face an uphill struggle to meet the EU’s demanding criteria for membership and, in the best-case scenario for Albania, accession remains several years away.

The country’s prospects are currently being hampered by a political stalemate in the wake of an election in June, won narrowly by the governing Democrats led by Sali Berisha, a dominant figure of post-communist Albania. Since the election, the Socialist opposition has boycotted parliament. In its progress report on the country published in October, the Commission said that this had delayed important reforms. The judicial system, together with pervasive corruption and organised crime, are a special concern.

Albania has also failed to qualify for the lifting of EU visa requirements because of weaknesses in policymaking and implementation. Citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia will be able to travel to the Schengen area without visas as of 19 December, subject to final approval by EU justice ministers. Bosnia and Herzegovina also failed to qualify. Bosnians and Albanians will now have to wait until mid-2010 at the earliest before they can travel without visas.

In July, Iceland submitted an application for membership that was referred to the Commission within days. Iceland already implements a wide range of EU law.

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The Commission is also currently scrutinising the membership application of Albania’s northern neighbour, Montenegro, which submitted its application last December. EU ministers referred it to the Commission in April.