The aftermath of the June 2009 general elections is not over. Quite the contrary, the risk posed by the political conflict that ensued after the elections to the advancement of the country’s goals and ambitions increases by the day.
This week, the Council of the European Union adopted its conclusions on the enlargement and stabilisation-association processes, after the Commission published the Progress Reports for the countries of the region in October. So, ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia seems underway. So does the opening of accession negotiations with FYROM, the problems of which seem to be more and more reduced to the name issue with Greece. Negotiations with Croatia are now entering their final phase, the Council concludes.
As the Council of the European Union adopts its conclusions and sees our neighbours advance towards EU membership, Albania protests. These must have been good days for the transport and oil business as buses and all sorts of other vehicles full of public employees have headed for Tirana to fill up the capitals’ squares and streets as our main leaders compete to portray higher popular support. It ought to be noted that the competing rallies have not been about demonstrating the legitimacy of respective claims, the democratic support for those claims. For as long as the jobs of public sector employees depend on participation in rallies, we are unlikely to have an accurate clue of public support for any claim or cause.
We do have a clue about public support for EU integration, however. The latest study of the Albanian Institute for International Studies reveals that 88.7% of Albanians would vote in favour of EU accession in case of a referendum. Contrary to popular will, however, these have not been good days for Albania’s integration agenda.
All political efforts and energies are being unsuccessfully invested in the political conflict between the ruling powers and the opposition, thus exhausting resources for the work we should be doing. It is in fact hard to imagine that much work is being done to reform Albania’s judiciary, to fight organised crime and corruption, to improve public order and security, to improve border management and control or on other issues important for our quality of life and our EU aspirations. Everyone is so busy mobilising people from across the country to participate in rallies, and everyone is so busy shouting out accusations of mafia involvement. In the current political speech and conflicts between political parties, between the central and local governments, sight has been lost of our EU agenda.
In fact, the Council appropriately concludes that all political parties in Albania must pursue ‘constructive political dialogue’, basically meaning get out of the stalemate and get back to work.
