TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
TIRANA, Sep. 27 – Over the past week, Albanians received some anticlimactic good news. It appears the European Union is inclined to make Albania an official candidate for EU membership by the end of this year. The official reasoning will likely be that the status is being granted in recognition of political progress – the political stalemate has ended and some key reforms have been passed.
Albania still has a lot of work to do on the key goals the EU has set for the country, but even EU officials must realize at this point that refusing to give Albania EU candidate status for a third time would be pretty bad for the country’s self-image and could potentially harm how Albanians see themselves in relation the Europe – despite the fact that study after study shows Albanians overwhelmingly support EU integration.
This newspaper has never advocated for simply putting Albania through the motions when moving toward Europe. For us, and those who truly understand EU integration, it is more about the changes that make the country more like Europe than whatever label might be placed on its journey at any given time.
History has shown that EU candidate status is given for political reasons as much as technical ones. And one can still remain with the status of candidate for years without making any progress. Neighboring Macedonia is a good example of both.
Getting the official candidate status would be quite a welcomed news – something that should have happened much earlier – but delayed due to Albanian problems, not EU ones.
We used the word “anti-climatic” at the start of the editorial because the attention of Albanians and their counterparts in the EU of late has been the declining economic climate rather than integration or enlargement – despite these being top stated goals.
No doubt Albanian political parties will try to spin any EU decision in their favor, though at this point political parties in Albania have already failed by leaving the country so far behind in the integration process. This third attempt at success gets them no redemption.
The status will also likely be conditional on elections next year going smoothly. They need to be free and fair, otherwise any progress will be voided.
Europe and the United States have made it clear that they will keep a close eye on the next year’s elections. Albania has never been fully complying with the pledge to have free and fair elections. Now it is the time to prove it can be European and deserving of the label.
At the end of the day, the EU membership process is very long and Europe for sure will be very strict in all the requirements. And the EU should be clear and cut in its communications, providing a detailed analysis of what Albania did and didn’t do and who is to blame specifically in the political class, the government and/or the opposition.
Common Albanian voters need to know who is to blame for the country’s stalled European journey. Straight talk would go a lot further than diplomacy.
