TIRANA, Dec. 5, 2022 – What does Albania bring to Europe? It’s the question an international conference to be held on Tuesday in Tirana will try to answer through “exploring and enhancing a narrative of the mutual benefit of EU integration.”
As Albania hosts the leaders of EU and Western Balkans states for the largest summit ever held in the Albanian capital, academics, researchers and experts on European issues from Albania, Italy and Spain will discuss EU integration at the conference, a collaboration of the Albanian Institute of International Studies, the Albanian Media Institute and the embassies of Italy and Spain and the Delegation of the European Union.
“We must reflect on the strategic added value that Albania brings to the European Union,” said Alvaro Renedo Zalba, Spain’s ambassador to Albania. “Albania’s key geostrategic position as a Mediterranean gateway to the Western Balkans, its profound Euro-Atlantic sentiment, its active role in NATO and its leadership within the UN Security Council, the constructive regional approach of its foreign policy, the potentialities for energy security through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the vibrancy and talent of its society, the dynamism of its youth portrayed in Tirana as European Youth Capital, its interconfessional harmony… these and other factors underline the strategic benefits that Albania will provide to the EU as a whole, at a crucial point in history.”
While the dominant narrative for the European integration remains that of the transformative power of the process, the conference will emphasize that the time has come to analyze the other side of this process — what Albania and the countries of the region bring to the European Union — what strategic contributions and value added they offer today and in the future.
AIIS Chairman Albert Rakipi said the academic conference in Tirana aims to further modernize the debate about European integration by reseting the point of view with Albania and other Western Balkan countries also offering something to the EU instead of just seeking to gain from it.
Rakipi added that when it comes to the expansion of the EU in the Balkans, unfortunately, negative reasons have prevailed in arguments for membership. These include the region being EU’s backyard, having political instability, the risk of exporting instabilities, as well as other geopolitical arguments to push for EU to expand into a vacuum that can also be filled by powers outside the Euro-Atlantic axis.
“All these are negative reasons that should encourage the EU to expand in the Balkans, including Albania. But the aim of this academic conference is to bring the good positive reasons why the EU should expand with new members from the Western Balkans, which currently remain an island surrounded by EU member states,” Rakipi said.
The conference had been originally scheduled for Dec. 6 without the organizers knowing the major EU-Western Balkan summit would be set on the same day, with organizers calling it a fortunate coincidence.
