Albania: Movement towards EU membership - timeline

Searching more than 75 years of world history

August 2009. Prime Minister Sali Berisha, whose ruling right-of-centre Democratic Party of Albania (PDS) won the recent general elections, starts negotiations on cabinet personnel for the next four-year term.
June 2009. Elections to the People's Assembly (the unicameral legislature) result in a close contest between the PDS (68 seats) and the opposition Socialist Party of Albania (PSS) (65 seats).
April 2009. Prime Minister Berisha formally makes an application for Albanian membership of the EU.
July 2007. Bamir Topi is elected as president, thereby ending a protracted political deadlock that had threatened to trigger an early legislative election.
June 2007. George W. Bush visits Albania, the first US president to visit the country. Large numbers of Kosovar Albanians cross the Serbian-Albanian border to greet the president.
June 2006. Albania and the EU sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), an important step towards Albanian membership of the EU.
September 2005. After two months of political wrangling, Berishas PDS emerges as the victor in July's general election.
July 2002. PSS leader Fatos Nano is appointed as prime minister by the newly-elected president, Alfred Moisiu.
August 2001. The ruling PSS secures a second term in office by winning general elections.
September 1999. NATO ends its mission to help Albania cope with the Kosovar refugee influx.
November 1998. President Rexhep Mejdani signs the country's first post-communist constitution into law.
September 1998. Prime Minister Nano resigns after serious rioting in Tirana (the capital) in the wake of an opposition politician's assassination; he is replaced by Pandeli Majko.
July 1997. The opposition PSS wins an early general election; Berisha resigns as president and is replaced by Mejdani.
March 1997. A mass popular rebellion sweeps the south which falls under the control of heavily-armed civilians, ex-communist soldiers and criminals.
January 1997. Serious social unrest is triggered by the collapse of a string of pyramid finance schemes.
June 1996. A general election is held but a massive victory for the ruling PDS is marred by allegations of widespread electoral malpractice.
November 1994. A new constitution, proposed by the governing PDS, is rejected in a referendum.
July 1994. Former President Ramiz Alia is convicted of abuse of power and sentenced to nine years in prison; he successfully appeals and is released in 1995.
April 1993. Pope John Paul II visits Albania.
April 1992. PDS leader Berisha replaces Alia as president.
March 1992. A general election is held and the PDS wins an overall majority in the Peoples Assembly.
December 1991. A non-communist, Vilson Ahmeti, is appointed prime minister as food shortages and strikes continue to destabilise the country.
July 1991. The EU launches an emergency food and medical aid programme to Albania.
March 1991. The first free multiparty elections are held and result in a victory for the communist Albanian Party of Labour (APL).
December 1990. Amidst mass, nationwide protests, the countrys first-ever opposition party the PDS is formed.
July 1990. Unprecedented anti-government street demonstrations in Tirana are brutally broken up by the security forces, and large numbers of Albanians start to flee the country.
May 1990. The People's Assembly approves wide-ranging economic and judicial reforms, and Albanians are granted to right to travel abroad.
January 1990. Against a background of the overthrow in late 1989 of hardline communist rule across Eastern Europe, President Alia proposes limited political and economic reforms.
February 1989. President Alia announces an extensive reorganisation of personnel and responsibilities within the government and the APL.
August 1985. President Alia delivers a major policy statement in which he asserts that those looking for changes in Albania's foreign policy line following the death of APL first secretary Enver Hoxha are "wasting their time".
April 1985. Hoxha dies aged 76; Alia replaces him as first secretary of the APL.
November 1982. Alia is elected to replace Haxhi Lleshi as president of the presidium of the People's Assembly (head of state) - Hoxha remains in complete control as first secretary of the APL.
December 1981. It is announced that Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu has committed suicide during "a moment of nervous distress".
November 1981. Albanias policy of isolationism is highlighted at the APLs eighth congress when only one ruling foreign communist party, the Vietnamese, is invited to attend.
September 1979. The death is announced of Hysni Kapo, one of Hoxhas closest colleagues.
July 1978. China terminates all economic aid to Albania and recalls all Chinese specialists working in the country.
December 1976. The People's Assembly unanimously adopts a new hardline Stalinist constitution.
October 1970. Albania and China sign a number of economic agreements.
September 1968. Albania formally withdraws from the Warsaw Pact over the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
November 1966. In an address to the fifth congress of the APL, Hoxha makes it clear that Albania intends to stay close to China.
February 1961. Hoxha continues his harangue against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia at the APLs fourth congress; Moscow responds by cancelling aid programmes and lines of credit.
November 1960. Albania sides with China when it launches an attack on the Soviet Union's leadership of the international communist movement at the Moscow conference of the world's communist parties.
May 1955. Albania becomes a founding member of the Warsaw Pact alongside the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria.
July 1954. The APL is reorganised on the lines of the Soviet Communist Party and Hoxha, hitherto secretary general, is appointed first secretary of the party.
January 1949. The government carries out a widespread purge of pro-Tito elements.
July 1948. Albania breaks ties with Yugoslavia, describing the Yugoslav leadership as "ignorant Trotskyists", and the Soviet Union begins supplying economic aid.
October 1947. Sixteen US/UK "spies" are executed.
July 1946. Albania and Yugoslavia sign a 20-year treaty of friendship and mutual assistance.
January 1946. Albania is proclaimed a republic, depriving former King Zog of his royal rights and forbidding his return.
November 1944. Following the expulsion of the Germans, a provisional communist government is formed in Tirana by Hoxha.
November 1943. After German forces have invaded and occupied Albania following Italys surrender, Churchill pledges to support Albanian independence.
April 1939. Italy invades and occupies Albania; King Zog and his family flee to Greece and the crown passes to Italys King Victor Emmanuel.

Search the Archive

Blog

Sign Up

Record of World Events

Albania: Movement towards EU membership - timeline