No Time To Lose

Just as announced, Albania officially filed its request for candidate country status to the European Union. The circumstances are hardly favourable, especially in light of three factors: first, the internal developments and dilemmas of the European Union; second, the financial and economic crisis and third, the issues that accompanied the accession of the new members, Bulgaria and Romania. Despite these circumstances, however, the Albanian government remained adamant, showed no sign of doubt or hesitancy.
All those who only know the Albania of today and have no clue of the state of this country twenty years ago might see the knock on EU’s door as a rushed step. All those that have a wider context in mind, however, and that have followed the development trends of this country will read only one message in Albania’s application to the EU: We have no more time to lose.
A controversial and at times violent transition may be coming to an end. At the beginning of the nineties, Europeans, especially Italy, our closest neighbour, discovered Albania under a bad light. Hundreds of thousands of Albanian, having come through alive from what was perhaps the most violent communist regime of the entire East, sought refuge in abandoning the country, through all ways and means and at all costs. This violent flight of Albanians from their country remained on the memory of European societies for a long time, a vivid sense arousing both fear and rejection. Thus is the context – a completely isolated country where violence, poverty and state crime reigned.
While not forgetting altogether, we must nevertheless accustom ourselves to the fact that such a state of affairs belongs to the past. Nowadays, the former small, forsaken country, a living bunker of communism, backwardness and poverty is a member of the North Atlantic alliance and has just taken another important step towards European Union membership.
The official request that Albania handed in to the Czech Presidency this week represents a new standard and a challenge that Albania wills to face. Alongside the hesitancy and scepticism that is mainly rooted in internal issues of the Union, Albania’s application met in reserve from some EU member states due to the country’s capacities. In fact, the public or diplomatic recommendations from some European countries that Albania should wait for its application until after the upcoming elections are related to these countries’ scepticism about the capacities, abilities and the political will of Albanian parties in particular to conduct free and fair elections.
And they may be right in their scepticism and doubt. The country was on the brink of civil war in 1997 and one of the causes, amongst many others, was the controversial electoral process. Have right lessons been drawn? The elections that will be held in less than two months will be a great test for Albania’s final break with a very aggressive post-communist legacy. This will be the first instance that will see Albania confront the standard and challenge that it chose for itself, by applying for candidate country status. Albania, this small country in the Balkan, already lost much time during communism and then during the transition. It now seems to be determined to lose no more.