The overall albanian legal framework of competition

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect and analyze developments in the legal and institutional frame-work of competition in Albania bringing the author's point of view based on various documents, legal acts and numerous papers of different authors. This paper also seeks to identify, the results achieved by the implementation of the new legal and institutional Albanian framework, regarding the fact that since 2004 Albania has been applying competition law/policy as an economic regulation that affects both the structure of markets and the conduct of market participants. Albania is a small European country, which since the entry into force of the SAA, has been legally obliged to fulfill the so-called “Copenhagen criteria”, namely: political criteria (democracy, rule of law, human rights, protection of minorities) and economic criteria (functioning market economy and capacity to cope with competition pressure within the internal market of the European Union). In this context Albania has made some good progress in developing a stable and functioning market economy, however, there is significant room for further improvement in many aspects. The Albanian economy appears to have most of the basic building blocks of a functional competition policy regime, though some gaps persist and enforcement records appear limited. Aiming at the EU market, Albania is a latecomer and, above all, enters a market that is highly competitive and very demanding with regard to quality, reliability and efficiency of supply