The Double-Sided Europeanisation of Public Administration in the EU Accession Process

The EU accession process entails substantial efforts and commitment by candidate countries, in aligning their policies and legislation with the EU. Public administrations and their capacities are in a unique position of being a main instrument for implementing these changes, and at the same time a key criterion under evaluation and assessment on its own. Public administration reform has been a crucial component of the process, part also of the negotiating Cluster 1 (Fundamentals) under the new enlargement methodology of 2020. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss the Europeanisation dynamics and patterns of public administration in Albania's EU accession process. Since the 2015 Enlargement package, the European Commission has paid more attention to measure readiness of each country for membership, by assessing levels of preparedness. In the theoretical approach of the paper, the preparedness indicators are considered a direct link to Europeanisation and its impact. This paper tries to develop a longitudinal assessment of main indicators related to progress and readiness for accession in public administration standards, aiming at identifying patterns and main challenges of Europeanisation. The paper quantifies and uses indicators from the annual country reports, to build a study framework for tracing and analysing the double-sided nature of Europeanisation for public administration, as an implementer and recipient of Europeanisation. In its findings, the paper tries also to capture a few comparative elements (between the Western Balkan countries) and analyses key features in the public administration reform. The paper methodology also includes the analysis of main recommendations of the European Commission and mechanisms employed to address them. In its conclusions, the study highlights key characteristics of the Europeanisation process of public administration reforms and the impact it has on the EU accession process.