Sustainable Regional Development in Albania and the Challenges to European Integration

Minimizing or eliminating regional disparities is one of the priorities and challenges of the governments nowadays. Regional disparities are characteristic of large countries, but mostly of developing countries. Studies have shown that these disparities are two to six times more than in developed countries. Using different approaches to eliminate disparities, governments attempt to help economic activities of certain regions in order to be more competitive. In this paper, firstly I will conduct a theoretical and empirical assessment of the regional development approach as per se. The purpose of analyzing the theoretical approach is to introduce the differences between the early approaches of developing the infrastructure and attracting inward investments in the different regions of the country with the latest one of effectively using the public recourses and significantly better policy outcomes. This approach includes some measures to increase the competitiveness among the regions of the country. Secondly, in the paper I will observe the approach followed by European Union and especially focus on the Albanian government approach to address the inequality of regions in Albania. The purpose of this analysis is to understand if regional development policies, legal and institutional framework put in place by the government, are consistent with those of the community in which Albania wants to join in, the European Union. The analyzes will show that there are some adjustments that Albania has to do in its regional development policy and legal and institutional framework in order to benefit from the financial instruments that European Union gives to candidate countries, in the process of the European integration.