Albania´s Progress on Rule of Law, Democracy and Fundamental rights - A Comparison Between the EU and Council of Europe’ Monitoring Instruments

This article will deal with the progress of Albania´s accession to the European Union. Secondly, the Copenhagen principles to be complied with by candidate countries will be addressed, as far as several requirements regarding the state of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights are demanded by the EU institutions in order to be accepted as a new member in the EU. The problems regarding the actual monitoring of these requirements and the control exercised by the EU will be put forward. Thirdly, it will be presented a summary of the last report elaborated by the European Commission, centered on the requirements that involve democracy, judiciary and fundamental rights protection in Albania. Fourthly, given that Albania is also part to the European Convention on Human Rights and as such it is subject to the external monitoring exercised by the Council of Europe, it will be presented the conclusions of the last report of the Council of Europe regarding the concrete issues of rule of law, democracy and protection of fundamental rights in Albania. Lastly, the differences between the standards and the elements used by both international organizations to assess the situation of rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights will be pointed out. Lastly conclusions and recommendations will be presented.