01 Nov President Meta’s message on the progress of Albania’s European integration process.
The Prime Minister Rama’s exaltation over the opening of negotiating clusters, after blocking the country’s European integration for a decade, highlights the hypocrisy and irresponsibility of him and the Narcostate clique toward a process that should have been concluded long ago.
Albania signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement in 2006, before Montenegro, Serbia, and other countries that signed it years later. Yet, these countries opened negotiations in 2012 and 2014 and are now in a far more advanced stage, despite facing international court issues and interethnic conflicts.
Meanwhile, Albania has faced only one core problem: state capture by the mafia, particularly the capture of the judiciary. What was supposed to be a judicial reform backed by 140 votes ended up with just 69 votes, with judges even being sworn in at a notary public’s office by the Lana River. Consequently, justice indices rank Albania worse than communist Vietnam or Lukashenko’s Belarus.
This development, though significantly delayed, is only due to geopolitical factors, as further delay is unsustainable. Meanwhile, the solemn promise to conclude negotiations within three years resembles the unfulfilled promise made by the Narcostate for “free healthcare”, promise which brought SP to power in 2013, or the pledge to resolve the drinking water issue nationwide within one term.
The struggle of the Freedom Party and the true opposition against state capture as well as the restoration of accountability will also unblock the European integration process.