Beyond reforms at home and convincing EU officials of progress, Albania has to start appealing to European voters directly.
TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Recent polls coming out of Europe are clear and worrying. Most European voters do not want Albania to join the European Union. Albania, like the rest of the region, is falling victim to a perfect storm of rising anti-EU populism, economic hardship across the continent and fears over immigration and multiculturalism. In the worst case scenario this can undo EU enlargement altogether.
That’s why now it is more important than ever to remind European voters that Albanians share their aspirations and their values. Beyond reforms at home and convincing EU officials of progress, Albania has to start appealing to European voters directly – before it is too late.
There is no getting around it: When it comes to how most Europeans view Albania, this country is poor, corrupt and crime-prone. Some of that perception is based on reality. Much of it is not.
While Albania has made impressive improvements over time, its image abroad has not quite caught up with its realities. And unless something is done about it, these negative perceptions will end up further delaying the country’s EU membership, even if integration reforms take place and bureaucratic negotiations are eventually concluded over the next decade.
Albania currently has a government that takes image matters very seriously. That is encouraging because it is high time to start working harder on shaping a different image of Albania. How Europeans see this country will ultimately have as much effect in Albania’s EU membership bid as the reforms the country must implement to be accepted into the club.
The two also go hand in hand. The government and society must enforce and obey the rules of a modern society to project a proper image. But the government must also invest more in the country’s brand.
Some efforts, like enlisting key members of the Albanian diaspora to help, have already taken place, but they must be intensified.
Albania must work on an active campaign to counter any negative stereotyping or just downright racist portrayal of Albanians in media, films and ill-informed neighbors. It must start with things like officially challenging any deeply-negative portrayal of Albanians with facts and sponsoring brand promotion in films and television.
It can go further with setting up informational booths outside Albania in places like Croatia, Montenegro and Greece, where tourists headed to Albania have been told for years by our ill-informed or bad-intentioned neighbors that going to Albania means risking life and limb.
Albanian artists and journalists also have a role to play in shifting the agenda from the worst the country has to offer to many of its better features.
We are not advocating hiding what’s wrong with the country. It has many problems and challenges. But focusing solely on what is negative – as movies, books and articles about traffickers and blood feuds do נ ignoring everything else – is unfair and unjust.
People-to-people contacts are also very important to shatter wrong notions about what Albania is like. More and more young tourists from the European Union are visiting Albania – an encouraging sign. There is no better way to remove prejudice of a place than experiencing it for yourself.
