TIRANA, March 31 – The European Union is the sole destiny for Albania even though the EU itself doesn’t regard enlargement as priority anymore, Albania’s former European Integration Minister Majlinda Bregu has said. She was speaking at an event organized by the Italian embassy in Tirana and the Albanian Institute for International Studies, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome.
Sixty years ago in Rome, the Treaties of Rome established a common market where people, goods, services and capital can move freely and created the conditions for prosperity and stability for European citizens, ushering in the longest period of peace in written history in Europe.
An opposition Democratic Party MP who heads the parliamentary European integration committee, Bregu said recent developments with Brexit, migrant and economic crisis have put EU enlargement out of the agenda.
‘’There is certain annoyance when the enlargement is mentioned. If you don’t demand it, the topic of enlargement isn’t even included in the meetings,’’ said Bregu, adding that Albania, already an EU candidate since mid-2014 is also to blame for this situation. According to her, the only thing that separates Albania from Europe now is the rule of law.
‘’We lack the ambition to make reforms and things are more difficult if we don’t convince ourselves that the EU is our sole destiny. A country with jeopardized elections is not European. Someone should not be in danger when they vote,” she said, addressing students of the Faculty of Social Sciences in Tirana.
Albania is preparing to hold general elections next June but a political deadlock could put them at risk as the main opposition Democratic Party has been staging a protest since more than a month threatening to boycott elections unless a caretaker government is put in place to guarantee free and fair elections.
Elly Schlein, an Italian member of the European Parliament, said that the anniversary of the Treaties of Rome should be a celebration, but there is little to celebrate at the current stage.
‘’It is evident that the EU that we have now is not the one that was imagined by those who founded it’’, said the MEP, representing the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats at the European Parliament.
“Two years ago, I didn’t imagine that a country would leave the EU, that Schengen would not function, that the European countries would not help those who escape war. In a lot of things, there has been a lot of egoism’’, she said.
Commenting on Albania’s prospects of joining the EU, the Italian MEP said ‘’we should retrieve the spirit of foundation, even with countries like Albania which believe more than us.”
