TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Albania hopes to get the EU candidate for membership status in three months time, a decision that according to the country’s supporters has already been delayed unfairly.
There are no guarantees the status will be granted in June, however, and both the government and the Albanian people must be prepared for a further delays, because little has changed since December, and the uncertainty of the European parliament elections introduce another unknown into the equation.
Furthermore, none of the five countries that blocked Albania’s bid in December have given any assurances that they are satisfied with what they have seen so far or whether they have changed their official decision that they need more time to look at the government’s performance. Comments made this week by the Dutch ambassador, for example, are diplomatic but opaque.
“It is the position of my government that Albania could potentially become a candidate country in 2014, but a great deal would subsequently have to happen before accession negotiations could be started,” Dutch Ambassador Ambassador Martin de la Beij said at a Tirana event this week. (His comments are available in full on pages 7-8.)
The comment leaves open any potential outcome, including another postponement for December 2014 as well as lays bare another important fact: the status is just a symbolic step – the real slow phase of the process will be the negotiations that will come afterward.
In essence, Albania’s membership in the European Union will take a decade or more. That lengthy wait might seem normal to many who view the state of the Albanian society from Berlin, Amsterdam or London, but it should scare Albanians into action — working harder domestically to set the house in order — but also better communicating themselves to Europe.
There will also be costs tied to the delay. Pushing membership further and further into the future will mean it will increasingly lose its allure for Albanians and others in the region, undermining the stabilizing factor that a joint EU future has become.
Events these past few weeks in Ukraine show that peace and stability can never be taken for granted — even in Europe — and any time the West appears divested or uninterested — darker forces have a tendency to rise to the surface to fill the void.
That’s why EU capitals must fully understand, now, well ahead of their June decision, that another postponement of Albania’s candidate status will mean Albanians will become even more jaded with the prospect of the long wait they face to join their Romanian, Bulgarian and Croatian counterparts in their status as EU citizens.
With further delays,it will be increasingly harder for the governments to communicate the importance of the EU bid to the Albanian people — thus making it harder to implement EU-mandated reforms.
But the government must also focus on doing a better job in communicating Albania to Europe.
Italy, one of Albania’s best friends in the EU, has gotten the message.
A speech the Italian president gave to the Albanian parliament was heartwarming. (You can find it in full on pages 12-13).
“It is clear to all that the place of Albania is in Europe, because of its history, its culture, and its values. Europe has represented a lot to Albania in the past, it can even represent more in the future,” Napolitano said. “Albania, on its end, has abundantly shown that it has done much, and that it can actually do even more, for the European family.”
Albania, Italy and its other advocates in the EU must now take that same message to Brussels.
