The Albanian Institute for International Studies and its partners organized in the end of October the international conference “Twenty Years After: Rethinking Democracy and State in Albania” where you were one of the keynote speakers. What is your opinion of the topics covered in the conference?
It was a really great decision of the organizers to bring highly profiled experts on Albania from all over the world together with local experts and contemporary witnesses to reflect a unique period of recent Albanian history. Coming myself from East Germany and being actively involved in the transition process of 1989/90 there, I know how necessary and important is such a view backwards to understand current problems and challenges. And as a former politician, I know as well the phenomenon to have not enough time to reflect developments as long you are still in the right of the middle of the transition process. Especially because Albania is still country in transition, there was and is a need for such kind of reviewing. The causes and the connectivity of the current developments are not understandable without looking into the past. The multifaceted and interdisciplinary assessment of the Albanian development during the last 20 years presented an interesting, color- und thoughtful picture of a dynamic country with a still unfinished transition process.
How would you assess these two decades of Albania’s transformation? How has Albania changed in these 20 years? Can you draw a balance sheet of Albania’s main achievements and failures in these past 20 years?
Albanians were confronted during the last 20 years with a huge challenge to transform the country from a one-party dictatorship to a parliamentary republic with a multiparty system. I have a huge respect for the Albanian people to manage such a complex process and always enjoy the general positive dynamic in the country. Albanian history of the last 20 years is both – a success story concerning a unique change of the country in general, especially visible in Tirana, but it’s also one of ups and downs and tragic backlash – we only have to recognize the incidents of 1997 and even the current ongoing political crisis and stalemate which was peaked in the tragic events of January 21, 2011. Albania is a country of extremes. So, on one side the country is full of wonderful untouched nature wonder which also offers a huge potential for (ecological) tourism, on the other side Albania has still the unsolved problem of waste management and environmental protection as well as a construction and urban policy which is again and again rooted in corruptive structures. On the one hand, it was and is a tremendous challenge for the Albanian people to overcome in a relatively short time isolation and traditional structures. Highly motivated and engaged people constructed a lot of new projects. The political class was and is confronted with a huge responsibility, but could not and cannot fulfil the expectations especially because of ongoing cases of corruption and a policy of patronage. Albania is on one hand a country with a young population which offers al of future capital, on the other hand the country is still confronted with a significant brain drain, especially of highly educated youngsters. And there is still a big extreme in live conditions and quality between urban and rural areas. There are still a lot of things to do to present the country as an attractive location for investments in different areas in an unfortunately still almost unknown, but fascinating part of Europe.
Can we say for sure that the Albanian transition, meaning the replacement of the totalitarian state regime with a democratic state and the transformation of a centralized economy with a market economy, has already ended?
The Albanian transition process is an irreversible, but a still ongoing one. Overcoming old and traditional structures and creating sustainable democratic and rule of law structures is a long term process, there are no shortcuts possible. Albania is lacking tradition and experience with rule of law and parliamentarianism, which include dealing with fundamental consensus and compromises, differing positions and diverging interests, the co-determination of persons concerned, ongoing public debates and criticism, the free mandate and personal responsibility. The understanding of power seems to me one of the key issues. Often power is still identified with an unlimited dominance of the majority in all areas of society – as judiciary, economy and media. Still corruption is a widespread phenomenon at all levels of society and considered as “normal” as well as the clan-economy. As long as democracy is equated with dominance of the majority who needs no opposition or the role of opposition is misunderstood concerning an absolute combating of governmental policy we still can’t speak of an established parliamentary democracy. The understanding that rights and protection of political minority is an element of stabilization has still to be enforced. Concerning the economic development, it’s a circle – as more established democratic and rule of law structures in a society as better are the chances for (foreign) direct investments which are so necessary to keep the dynamic development of the still relatively young market economy in Albania.
How would you assess Albania’s foreign policy and international relations?
There is now doubt that Albania played during the last 2 decades an excellent role in stabilizing the situation in the region. Especially concerning the status issue of Kosovo, it was of huge importance that Albania acted as a sovereign partner, which could convince that there aren’t any ambitions of a so-called “Greater Albania”. And even if a lot of potential is still not used, is visible that Albania is a profiteer of the regional cooperation in the Western Balkans which was from 1999 pushed by the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and from 2008 guided by the Regional Cooperation Council. It is definitely a unique way Albania went during the last 20 years from an international isolated dictatorship to a reliable partner in regional and international organizations, a NATO member with good relations to the neighboring countries and an applicant for EU membership. Attending regional parliamentary cooperation activities during the last 8 years, I always felt the big interest, openness and ambitions of the Albanians to cooperate at international and regional level. A practical demonstration will be for example the organization of the next Conference of the European Integration Parliamentary Committees of States participating to the Stabilisation of Association Process (Western Balkans COSAP) in the Albanian Parliament this spring.
Albania failed to obtain the EU candidate status on November 9, whereas the Commission’s opinion on Montenegro’s application for membership was positive. What is your comment on this?
The big disappointment about the negative opinion of the European Commission is understandable and was replaced by the understandable pleasure about the decision on visa liberalization. What has to be done now by the Albanian politicians and institutions is first of all an honest assessment of the listed reasons for the substantial criticism of the EU and to develop a strategy to overcome step by step all the listed lacks. Necessary reforms can only be implemented if structures and mentality will be changed. The lacking functioning of institutions was the main reason for the negative answer of the Commission on Albanians application to the European Union in November 2010. So, the Parliament plays a key role in the still ongoing transition and in the EU integration process. According to the EU report assessment there is a need to overcome the lack of political dialogue between government and opposition, of fulfilling the parliamentary oversight function as well as the parliamentary duties during the EU pre-accession process. The atmosphere in the Parliament which is characterized by heated speech and accusation can only be changed if traditional power and clan structures are getting over. What has to be overcome are such opinions that different political views have to be defeated and combated, the political competitor is identified as “the enemy”, politics is an hard fight and the acceptance of a compromise is a sign of infirmity and could damage the own ability to assert oneself, the personal ranking and the image. Recognizing my own experience of cooperation with Albanian women actively involved in party politics as well as in civil society organisations at local and national level, first of all I am convinced: As more women and young people entering the political decision making structures, as bigger are the chances to break new ground!
Petra Blaess-Rafajlovski, Berlin (Germany)
Born 1964, she studied German Studies, History and Pedagogy at Berlin Humboldt University and made afterwards research studies in literature. In 1990, she became Chairperson of the Central Election Commission for the first free elections in the German Democratic Republic and worked as TV editor. From 1990-2002, she was a Member and from 1998-2002 Vice President of the German Bundestag. Since 2003, she has been a freelance political advisor focused on parliamentary work, South Eastern Europe and gender issues. From 2004-2007, she has been a Senior Consultant on Parliamentary Cooperation to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and chaired its Parliamentary Cooperation Task Force. In 2006 and 2007, she became OSCE Advisor to the President and the Women’s Caucus of the Kosovo Assembly. In 2008, she was working as advisor to the Regional Cooperation Council and the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South Eastern Europe in Sofia. In 2010, she was acting as consultant for the IPA support program for the Albanian Parliament. From October until December 2010, she worked in Tirana as expert for the OSCE Presence in Albania for its Parliamentary Support Program. From 2004, she is working as Consultant for Friedrich Ebert Foundation in SEE. She is a member of the Presidency of the German South Eastern Europe Association.
