Albania
-
Immigration: For or against visas for the Balkans?
26 October 20128520PresseuropDagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet -
Turkey-Balkans: EU candidates still don’t make the grade
11 October 2012238PresseuropZaman, Hürriyet, EUobserver.com -
Albania-EU: “Let us in, you bastards!”
15 August 201218096 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Albania: Saying farewell to Hoxha’s bunkers
3 August 20121895 Gazeta Wyborcza Warsaw -
Central Europe: Democracy in decline
26 March 2012683PresseuropDie Presse -
Greece: Spread the wealth
17 October 201145 I Kathimerini Athens -
European Union: An enlargement of illusions
13 October 2011853 Dagens Nyheter Stockholm -
Albania: Tirana mayhem as political stalemate sours
24 January 2011PresseuropTema -
EU accession: The Balkan family photo is blurred
21 January 20111152 Politika Belgrade -
Editorial: Winter ceasefire
23 December 201016Presseurop -
Institutions: EU grows weary of enlargement
10 November 2010581 Presseurop -
Asylum seekers: The Albanians are coming!
27 October 2010PresseuropDe Morgen -
Austerity: A farewell to arms?
25 October 201028 La Repubblica Rome -
Balkans: Montenegro - come if you're rich
26 August 201058 The New York Times New York -
Bikers: Hells Angels ride into the Balkans
5 August 201024PresseuropBerlingske Tidende -
BALKANS: Kosovo, the problem neighbour
17 February 2010201 The Guardian London -
History: Can't take the Ottoman out of the Balkans
8 February 20101063 Globus-Skopje Skopje -
Balkans: Hail Albania!
25 November 2009191 The Guardian London -
Immigration: Greece opts for forced repatriation
26 October 200912 I Kathimerini Athens -
Accession: Zagreb and Ankara "must do better"
15 October 2009PresseuropZaman -
EU enlargement: Auditors find "black hole" of the Balkans
14 October 2009PresseuropTrouw -
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Have passport, can't travel
3 September 200921 BH Dani Sarajevo -
Turkey: Go East
19 August 2009The Guardian London -
EU enlargement: Never mind the Balkans, here's Iceland
31 July 20092 El País Madrid
Of all states wishing to join the EU, the "Land of the Eagles" seems more motivated than most. But the chance of obtaining candidate status at the moment is pretty slim, because there is so much progress yet to be made. At the border with Greece, the movement of migrants is a good indicator of how both economies are faring. 
During the paranoid Hoxha years, hundreds of thousands of concrete bunkers were meant to protect communist Albania from invasion by its enemies. Today they are now used by young people to party and to make out, or by others to recover steel and fuel the economic boom. 
In opening up the prospect of accession to several candidate countries, the European Commissioner for Enlargement means to put on a show of optimism. But it only reinforces the impression that Europe doesn’t know where it’s going, writes the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. 
The population census demanded by Brussels has become a political challenge in most of the countries of the western Balkans. Twenty years after the start of the wars in former Yugoslavia, the venture brings ethnic and social tensions back into the spotlight. 
For the European press, the publication of the annual “progress report” on prospective candidates for EU accession, has failed to dispel the general apathy that surrounds the question of enlargement. 
The crisis is forcing European states to make unprecedented cuts in their defence budgets, leaving their armed forces short on men and means – and eventually eroding their technological edge. 
Eager to join the European Union, Montenegro is cleaning up its image of corruption and pulling out all the stops to attract foreign capital. 
Two years after Kosovo's declaration of independence, the Union is still unable to come up with a coherent policy for the western Balkans. This threatens not only to scupper Serbia’s accession to the EU, but also to destabilise the region itself. 
Five centuries of Turkish domination left their mark on culture, cuisine, language and even gestures in Balkan countries. It is an influence that is still apparent in attitudes that have affected the pace of integration in the European Union for a number of Balkan states. 
On 16 November the EU Council formally approved Albania’s application for accession to the Union. Guardian columnist Peter Preston argues in favour of an emerging country whose enthusiasm for the European project is a welcome antidote to eurosceptic cynicism. 
Greece, the point of entry for many an illegal immigrant to the EU, is also required to take back immigrants that other countries do not want to keep. However, pleading a lack of appropriate infrastructure, it has failed to honour this responsibility, and instead adopts a policy of forced repatriation, which rides roughshod over refugees' rights. 
From 1st January, 2010, Muslim Bosnians and Kosovans will be the only citizens of the former Yugoslavia required to obtain visas to enter the European Union. Sarejevo daily, BH Dani, explains how impartial principles will result in discriminatory practice. 
The EU rose out of the ashes of war. Perhaps, with a little patience and pragmatism, a Middle Eastern Union is not such a distant fantasy. And Turkey, as East-West linchpin, is well-placed to be that unifying force. 
The enthusiasm with which member states have welcomed Reykjavik's request for accession to the EU is in marked contrast to the prudence — and in some cases hostility — which has greeted similar requests from the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Turkey. But the EU cannot afford to give the impression that certain candidates enjoy special privileges.