The Syrian War has brought about one of the greatest refugee crises of our time. Turkey represents a country that many refugees pass through in order to reach Europe, where supposedly they can find a better life. In order to be able to cope with the thousands of refugees that cross the Turkish border, the EU and Turkey have agreed on the “EU–Turkey Statement on Refugees” that was implemented in order to lower the number of irregular migrants coming from the Middle Orient, as well as to reduce migrant deaths, smuggling and human rights violations. The purpose of the article is to shed light on the main reasons why Turkey lacks commitment to the Statement. The article is composed of four parts. The first section elaborates on the deal itself, the conditions of the statement and the action points that were established. The following part outlines the opinions of the countries involved and the perspectives of the refugees on the EU–Turkey Statement. The third section contains a quantitative analysis in order to evaluate the efficiency of the deal, while the last section focuses on the influences of the Turkish coup d’état on the deal and the reasons for Turkey’s lack of commitment to the Statement. The findings show that for the deal to be functional both parties have to prove commitment; in the case of Turkey, financial reasons, visa-free travel and reopening EU accession talks seem to be the key factors necessary for proper commitment.

The  European  integration  process  of  Albania  is  bound  to  fulfillment  of  the  accession  criteria,  a  political  criteria  related  to  stability  of  institutions  guaranteeing  democracy,  rule  of  law  and  protection of human rights. Protection of human rights is a core value for the EU as well as a pre-condition for candidate countries. The  European  Commission,  through  the  annual  progress  reports,  monitors  protection  of  human  rights  and  compliance  of  the  domestic  legislation  with  international  human  rights  instruments;  particularly the European Convention of Human Rights. Also, the Commission evaluates cooperation with the European Court of Human Rights and executions of the Court’s decisions. The paper aims to analyze implementation of the acquis and European standards on the abolishment of the death penalty  and  on  prevention  of  torture  and  ill-treatment.  The  paper  considers  the  progress  reports  and some of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights on prevention of torture and ill-treatment.According  to  the  progress  reports,  the  main  conclusion  is  that  Albania  has  an  adequate  legal  framework  that  guarantees  human  rights,  but  the  main  concern  is  still  the  implementation  of  legislation.