Visa liberalization is great, but Albania needs to keep its eyes on the real target – EU membership
By ANDI BALLA
As the much-awaited decision on visa liberalization arrives, it marks a very important psychological moment in the minds of the citizens of Albania – an end to barriers on free travel that have plagued this country for nearly seven decades.
The restrictions were first self-imposed by the country’s communist regime, and then continued through the visa regime meant to keep poor Albanians from using tourist visits as an excuse to illegally immigrate.
Visa liberalization is absolutely overdue. It also marks an important step in the Albania-EU relationship. Albanians will be immensely happy about it. Much of this is psychological though. Many Albanians with the means to travel – money or relatives – have already done so through the burdensome visa process. But it is a great day for those Albanians who were never able check out neighboring EU members for a few days or hours, particularly among the young.
The government is doing a decent job telling people these visa-free trips are really meant to be short visits, up to three months, but there needs to be more emphasis on the barriers Albanians are still likely to face at the border, and the now increased chance they will be turned back if they don’t meet them. These include proving that enough funds are available for the trip, defining a purpose of visit that meets the criteria, etc.
But beyond visa liberalization, there are more important steps ahead. The government is focusing a lot on visa liberalization, because it wants to look good in the eyes of voters.
However, brewing in the background is a EU membership bid that seems to be going nowhere soon. There are strong indicators Albania is to be denied candidate status later this year, while Montenegro, which is barely a few years old, will become an official candidate.
The decision on the candidate status is no doubt related to Albania’s political crisis and the government’s failure to fight corruption.
The crisis is not entirely the government’s fault. The opposition
is being stubborn to the absurd. It is clearly placing its own agenda to come to power before what’s best for the country. Failure to approve the Administrative Courts Bill is a clear example of this. And its attempts to make everything in Albania seem bleak — when the country is doing fairly well considering how bad things are everywhere — are also misguided and self-serving.
But the corruption burden, the government must carry all on its own. It is ironic that a government which came to power in 2005 with anti-corruption measures is now the target of so many corruption allegations. It would be foolish not think there is some fire under all that smoke, though officially no charges have been filed.
Domestic political shenanigans aside, leaving Albania behind with no candidate status is also an EU strategy to push the country to further reforms. The European Union is very good at playing hard to get in order to to what it wants you to do. And most of the time it works, it just might take a long, long time with Albania’s stubborn leaders.
In the end, visa liberalization is absolutely great and important, but Albanians should make sure they keep their eye on the ball – EU membership.
