Luxembourg, 12/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The president-in-office of the EU, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, together with Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and the prime minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, signed the EU/Albania Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in Luxembourg on 12 June. Both sides also signed, on Monday, an interim agreement allowing for the commercial part of the SAA to take effect immediately, without waiting for ratification and entry into force of the SAA. The SAA replaces the economic and commercial cooperation agreement of 1992 which has so far governed contractual relations between the EU and Albania. It confirms Albania's European perspective and also offers Tirana a strengthened political dialogue as well as the prospect of establishing a free trade area with the EU in the ten years following enforcement of the agreement.
After the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) (April 2001) and Croatia (October 2001), Albania is the third of the Western Balkan states to sign a SAA with the EU. Agreements of this kind with Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro are being negotiated. Talks have been momentarily suspended with Serbia and Montenegro due to the lack of cooperation by Belgrade with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. Since the referendum in Montenegro on the country's independence, the Commission has been preparing negotiating briefs (to be put to the Council) with a view to conducting separate negotiations with the two countries.