Albania’s EU Membership Application

On 26 November 2010, European Movement in Albania (EMA) and Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organized a round table entitled: “Abania’s EU Membership Application: A “next-step-agenda” for political actors”. This event was focused on the presentation of the policy documents prepared by EMA and IDM on the verge of the Opinion of European Commission on Albania’s Application for EU Membership.
He meeting was welcomed by Mr. Sotiraq Hroni, Executive Director of IDM. During his speech, Mr. Hroni emphasized the importance of organizing such event which brought together all the actors involved in the European Integration Process.

Director of FES for Albania Mr. Michael Weichert, underlined that the Opinion of European Commission is a assessment that must be objectively read by actors engaged in this process. He pointed out that Albania suffered from the low level of application and implementation of the priorities defined in paper. This is a main problem which is articulated even at the European Commission’s Opinion, thereby the attention of political actors must be focused on translating into reality the legal framework and vision for EU Membership.

Policy paper “Scenarios of an Application” prepared by EMA experts’ team was presented for the audience by the Executive Director Mr. Gledis Gjipali. The policy paper provides a comparative analyzes based on practices of the enlargement process as well as Albania’s chances for success in this undertaking. During his speech, Mr. Gjipali stressed that the negative EC Opinion for the Albania’s Application for EU Membership was not only due to political crisis but a number of problems that country is facing. He brought to the attention of the audience that a similar situation was repeated on 1999. In this year Albania set the negative example in the region when it was denied opening of negotiations to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. This happen because the EU assessed that Albania was not able to start this process yet.

Policy Brief “Europe in 12 “lessons”: How late is “too late” prepared by IDN, and presented by Mr. Enri Hide Collaborator of IDN and Mr. Gjergji Vurmo, Head of IDM Center for European & Security Affairs. They stressed that Albanian politics appears ambiguous about a concrete commitment and a clear agenda based on the timeline regarding the accession process. The efforts of political class should be oriented towards the opening of negotiations as a concrete goal, not be limited to the status and less counter-productive discussions concerning the “responsibilities of non-receiving the candidate status”. They emphasized that any delay in this regards, will not only postpone the date of the negotiation but it will be reflected on the progress of other stages of the European Integration Process.

Panelists in this round table were representatives of media as one of the main actors who can give their impetus in the European Integration of the country. Mr. Lufti Dervishi, political analyst, during his speech compared the Albanian democracy with a football game where both teams accused each other for non fair game. He touched upon the issue of local elections, by emphasizing the lack of trust that the electorate faced on the possibilities to realize free, democratic and uncontested elections. “I do not have faith in such politic because it will remain the same, but what worry me are general apathy and the institutions which are under construction” -concluded his speech Mr. Dervishi.

Mr. Alekasander Cipa, Editor of Newspaper “Shqip” was particular focused on the approach towards democracy, where the public debate is mainly referred to propaganda and not to substance. As a result of this approach Albania suffers for the difficulty to establish the system of references and standards of a functioning democracy. He concluded that currently both political parties are destroying the fundamental of the democratization process of the country.

Editor of newspaper “Koha Jone” Mr. Edison Kurani, during his speech was focused on the political deadlock and on the situation that even after one year is still the same. He also mentioned the importance role that media has played in this situation.

In the end, an interactive discussion took place between the panelists and participants at the meeting who exchanged comments and views on the EC Opinion. Part of the discussion was also the political situation and the implication that it has on the European Integration of the country as well as on the coming local election which will be held on 8 May 2011. The activity was widely covered by electronic and printed media.

Scenarious of an Application