EU proposes a common market for nine candidate countries, including Albania

The European Commission has put forward for discussion the idea of creating a common market for nine countries aspiring to join the European Union, including Albania. The proposal is part of a document reviewing enlargement policy, which is expected to be adopted or published on 6 October, following the week-long meeting of the College of the European Commission in Strasbourg.

The market for candidate countries is described in the document as “the bloc’s most powerful instrument for promoting prosperity and economic convergence”.

Until now, full access to the European internal market, where goods, services, people and capital move freely, has only been possible after official EU membership. However, implementing these proposals, or some of them, will require the formal approval and compliance of all the union’s member states.

The document is expected to serve as a starting point for European leaders’ strategic discussions at the summit on 15 and 16 October in Brussels, a meeting that will focus on the enlargement of the European Union.

The list of candidate countries includes Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine. Inclusion in the common market will not be automatic, as it will be conditional on each country’s measurable progress in implementing reforms.

“Comparable progress should lead to comparable opportunities,” the draft prepared by the European Commission states.

According to the document, the instruments currently in existence would be expanded gradually, depending on each country’s actual level of readiness. The proposal also includes safeguards to prevent reforms from “stalling”, meaning that previously secured access to the market would not necessarily be permanent.