Albania
The relevance of Albania as a partner country derives from its geographical location in South Eastern Europe, making it a neighbour of the EU, and its aspirations to join the EU. To this end, the country submitted its application for EU membership on 28 April 2009 and has deepened its relations with the EU through the Thessaloniki European Council in June 2003, the June 2006 Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), which entered into force in April 2009 of which includes a WMD clause; and the Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade-related issues, which entered into force in December 2006.
In its national report submitted to the 1540 Committee in 2004, Albania requested assistance to implement the UNSCR 1540 in areas such as the adoption of appropriate domestic legislation concerning the implementation in the near future of the European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports (now known as the Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, adopted on 8 December 2008), and the improvement of existing licensing systems on export-import of materials that might be used for manufacturing WMD.
