This work stresses the importance of considering synkinesis and hyperkinesis separately because they are different conditions. These two symptoms showed improvement after botulinum toxin treatment, but only hyperkinesis showed a positive correlation when objective and subjective evaluations were performed. This treatment is effective in the management of facial synkinesis and hyperkinesis due to facial palsy, thus improving quality of life. It is a safe, minimally invasive treatment that can be repeated.
Europeanization is a process existent in all prospective members of the European Union (EU). One such country is Albania, which has been stagnating for long in its attempts to join the EU. This commentary explores Olsen’s faces of Europeanization by observing how this process has materialized in Albanian politics and governance. It also sheds light into Europeanization approaches by studying the EU candidate countries in the Balkans aiming to look for similar or distinguishable patterns in countries where Europeanization has taken place. The commentary contends that Europeanization in Albania is occurring according to some unique features, which are labelled as ‘Europeanization by convenience’.
The recognition of transparency as an essential element of good governance is very important for new democracies because it leads to greater public support for their governments' economic and political decisions. This has been clearly understood by the countries in the Western Balkans which following the fall of communism entered a path of rapid democratization struggling to be opened and transparent. This paper explores transparency and open government in Albania looking at how the Albanian legal administrative framework and practices guarantee the principle of transparency in decision-making and the role the EU in complying with this principle. It introduces the concept of 'transparency through integration' as a model which encapsulates the transparency developments in Albania and Western Balkans and looks at how transparency can be transformed from a principle of good governance to a legalistic instrument holding a place in the hierarchy of legal norms. This research focuses on how transparency becomes part of a policy paradigm which can transform a country's politics from secretive and authoritarian to transparent and democratic. In addition, it suggests that the EU has a role to play as a transformative power to induce positive reforms and improve transparency in the decision-making in Albania.
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