Decentralization and Regional Development in Albania

The aim of this paper is to show that the present status of regional development in Albania has many inadequacies and missing elements that can cause a delay for Albania in the process of acquiring membership in the EU, and that there has been no comparison of Albanian regional development to that of the EU member states that have successfully implemented reforms and undertaken support programs on regional development before they joined the EU. Such a comparison is useful as it provides a number of valuable insights which could be applied to the framework of regional development in Albania. In this paper I argue that compared to other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), regional development in Albania is lagging behind with many reforms and elements missing in this area, and that useful insights can be drawn from practices of regional development in the Czech Republic and Poland which can be applied to the framework of Albanian regional development.