How can 60.9m euros assist Albania to gain EU membership?

I came across an interesting article sent by email that stated in part that the European Commission (EC) had recently announced it would grant 60.9m euros to Albania as part of its pre-accession partnership. The funds will finance 24 projects in administrative reform, education and rural infrastructure. The purpose of this grant is to bring Albania closer to EU membership. I believe this to be a crucial next step for Albania to secure important ties to the European community.

In addition, I was more than pleased to note that one of the projects the EC would fund was for much-needed administrative reform.One of the reforms that I believe should be a top priority is to restructure Albania's judicial system to make it completely free of corruption. As a second and related priority, I would recommend that a portion of the funds be expended to restructure the State and local security systems to limit the incidence of bribery and other forms of corruption and to bring the police and other law enforcement agencies into positions of respect and honor. Clearly, these will not be easy to undertake or implement.

I would be interested in your thoughts on the 60.9m euros. If the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister asked for your list of priorities, what would you tell them?

Check out the link below for the complete article, and let us know what you think.

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2009/03/10/nb-09