TIRANA, Nov 19 – Albanians continue to show a persistent popular support to the country’s integration into the European Union.
The latest survey conducted by the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) showed for the second time for the sixth consecutive year, that almost 95 per cent of the interviewed people were in favor of Albania’s accession to the EU.
The results were introduced Tuesday at the AIIS conference “Rethinking European Integration”, where representatives of the European embassies in Tirana were also present.
The survey was conducted with the help of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Albania stands as a unique case of strong and wide public support for the country’s integration in the EU. The percentage of citizens who are in favor of Albania’s accession to the EU has increased from 93.8 percent in 2007 to 95 percent this year, while the number of citizens opposing Albania’s accession into the Union has decreased from 2.4 percent in 2007 to only 1.84 percent in 2008.
Spanish Ambassador Manuel Montobbio said that such surveys should be carried out more than once a year. He referred to the Spanish experience where surveys about the most important matters in the country were carried out every three months. He also praised the AIIS’s initiative, though adding that was not enough and more and more institutions should measure more frequently the people’s perception about EU accession.
Head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation office in Tirana Alfred Diebold suggested it was likely more important to focus on whether Albania and Albanians were ready to join the EU rather than to the popular support the process of integration gets.
The AIIS study offers a picture of the citizen’s attitudes to Albania’s accession to the EU, the public opinion about the potential effects of accession, as well as the level and sources of information on Albania’s integration process.
The study was conducted using face-to-face surveys on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents (aged 18+) in Albania’s main urban centers. The survey gauged the support, perceptions and knowledge of society at large through the same method and instrument, thus also offering the first opportunity to compare trends at the level of society .
“We consider the data gathered and the analysis offered of utmost importance to our understanding of the situation and hope that they also prove useful to the Albanian government and society, as well to the EU and Member State actors and their attitudes and policies towards Albania’s EU integration bid,” said the AIIS.
This persistent popular support of the Albanian society towards accession into the European Union is unmatched by any other neighboring countries aspiring EU integration. The trend also does not match the trend that countries of Eastern and Central Europe, now EU members, depicted in the last ten years. The consistent trend in these countries was that the closer they got to accession, the more the support for membership faded.
The explanation of this Albanian “anomaly” is, however, important beyond academic curiosity and scientific research. A rational and comprehensive explanation would be critical both to enhancing the level of local ownership of the EU integration process on one hand, as well as to the EU itself and the European institutions that assist the preparation of Albania for membership, on the other. Based on this study, as well as the consecutive surveys of the last 6 years, there are a number of potential explanations that can be offered for the popular support that EU accession cherishes in Albania.
Such a unique popular support to the country’s accession into Europe may be explained with the fact that all of the consecutive post-communist Albanian governments, though deeply divided on other many important issues, have maintained a strongly united position when it comes to the European future. There has been no political party or any other economic, academic, religious or media organization, institution or syndicate to date to have expressed any opposition or hesitation towards Albania’s aspirations for EU membership.
The unwavering popular support for EU membership may also be explained as an effort to demonstrate that Albania’s identity is in the European values. That also is added with the expectations Albanian citizens have of EU membership and also the level of knowledge and understanding of EU integration process.
Free movement seems to continue to remain the most important factor that could mobilize citizens to vote in favor of accession in a potential referendum. That is shared by 52 percent of citizens, according to the poll.
The Albanian economy is another factor favoring Albanians’ support to EU integration. It continues to remain largely “closed”, mainly due with the structure of the economy and the domination of the non-production sectors. Therefore, important sectors of the domestic economy, such as agriculture and light industry are not affected by the European market. Although the Interim Agreement has been implemented for two years, it is public finances rather than private enterprises and trade that are affected. The national economy has still not started to feel any loss from the integration process. The survey notes that the Albanian business community has started to show the first signs of resistance to EU membership, but it can be still confidently stated that support for EU integration is popular even among this group.
The Albanian society continues to perceive the European Union as a strategic partner. Thus, 94.6 percent of the respondents think the government should see the relationship with the EU as a priority, a perception that the findings of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 surveys show to also be very consistent.
That is explained as a result of the enhancement of the role, presence, and visibility of the European Union in the country as well as a reflection of the desire and determination of Albanian citizens to join ‘Europe’.
The survey shows that Albanians maintain more or less the same perception of the strategic importance that a number of countries and other institutions should have for Albania.
But most Albanian still think Albania is not ready for EU accession. Only 31.76 percent of the respondents believe it is ready, compared to 52.03 percent of the opposite. Albanians believe the country has made better progress than some other Balkan countries that also aspire EU membership.
Compared to last year, fewer Albanian citizens believe the European Union should accept Albania before the country is ready.
The strategic evaluation of NATO has been high throughout the last six years and has grown stronger this year, given the NATO invitation of the Bucharest Summit in April. The United States of America maintain the same strong perception of strategic importance while the survey shows that the list of other strategically important states includes Italy, Germany, Spain and Great Britain.
With the exception of Kosova, for which 77, 57 percent of citizens consider it should be a priority, the level of importance that the government should attach to Macedonia, Monte Negro and Croatia are relatively low. The level is even lower when it comes to Serbia, with only 14 percent of citizens seeing the relationships between the two countries as strategically important.
Most Albanians believe accession in the EU will happen within 2015 while 24,9 percent believe that membership will come until 2010.
One of the main factors that may have encouraged such optimism could be the invitation earlier this year to join NATO.
Another important factor is the view that the EU should offer membership in order to speed up domestic reforms.
It is indeed quite significant that only 1.22 percent of the respondents believe that Albania will never be a member of the European Union.
The study also reveals that despite the raised level of maturity and understanding of the EU integration process, misconceptions and a relative lack of knowledge persist in the society.
See more at www.aiis-albania.org
