“The Strategic Agenda for EU Enlargement and Albania’s Accession” was the focus of the Interparliamentary Conference held in Tirana, attended by representatives of Albanian institutions, the European Parliament and the parliaments of European countries. The meeting focused on the European Union’s enlargement process, Albania’s European perspective and the importance of a shared approach to advancing the integration of the Western Balkans.

***

Since the Chair has covered the most important points and made the greatest contribution here, I’m simply trying to be a good host, and I’m relying on English because I don’t rely on translators.

First of all, I apologise. I feel horrible that we left you waiting for quite some time. I can guarantee you that this is not a pattern. It’s just because we had another meeting with the president. So, it took longer, and I felt even more guilty when I saw that you were kept in this dark room waiting for us while it was so beautiful outside.

 I want to thank Andresin for being here again and for not being tired of us yet, but I believe that he has, at the same time, good reasons to come back because Albania is a very good place to be and is the best place where you can escape Brussels.

I am very happy to see here Knut Fleckenstein, a very old and great friend, is a believer in Albania’s path towards Europe; although he somehow has retired from active politics, he can’t retire from Albania. It happens all the time. So, thank you Knut for being here, and I want to thank every one of you while I leave.

You don’t want me to have a read of my long speech and to tell you how wonderful we are doing and how great things are in Albania. I simply want to share with you a few thoughts about the moment, the moment in Albania and the moment for Albania. When it comes to the moment in Albania, I’m sure that you have been quite entertained lately with the flamingos, although I am not sure you’ll find them as many and as attractive as they look in the Instagrams of your colleagues from the European Parliament. But I am referring to it because it is the best example of the moment we are having in Albania.

I believe that Albania has done a lot in the last decade, and has passed from an era when people always thought it could be worse to a new era where people think it could be better. So, we are leaving that moment in history that Alexis De Tocqueville has defined as the revolution of rising expectations.

People have realized that the country is able to jump high. People have realized that the country is able to become totally different. People have realized that a lot of things are in motion, and there is as development that is now visible to everyone. But at the same time, people have questions, and rightly so they have questions, and naturally so. This questions are combined with the anxieties of our time in a way it feels very much like being in Europe also in this aspect, in the aspect of anxieties, of uncertainties, of a certain degree of loneliness that is more and more present in our lives and in our space of democracy, where the big confusion between freedom of speech and freedom of reach has created an amount of pressure coming from a lot of, let’s say, inaccurate news and a lot of conspiracy theories and so on and so further that, have added to the socially heavy moment.

But, on the other hand in comparison with the countries of the European Union, we have a big advantage we Albanians and Albania as such, because we still love the European Union which is not exactly the case in your own countries, where mostly the European Union is taken for granted, like a marriage. While we are fully committed, and you know, we have a lot of things that we debate here in the country. We have, every day, the capacity to find reasons to not agree with each other, even for the most tribal details.

But there is one thing that we have never succeeded in disagreeing with each other: that we want to be part of Europe and that we love Europe. 

So, we very much hope, and I very much hope, that Europe will not fail us again because, in the meantime, failing us is more than just failing a group of countries like the Western Balkans, but it’s failing itself,and if Europe will fail the West, the Western Balkans, it will not be an easy failure for Europe itself. It will be a failure. So, I hope that, although there are different ideas and different psychological and social situations in different countries, and, there are those who are very eager to see it happen now. Some are more reluctant.

I hope that all, despite how much they are eager or how reluctant they are, will find a path to give to the world, but also to give Europe itself a very strong signal. And I believe that it’s not so difficult to find. It is very easy. It’s like the Columbus egg. And it’s like the Helmut Kohl moment when the wall collapsed. Helmut call didn’t go there to tell the fellow Germans of the East that now you are free and you have 33 chapters to go through. He told them, “Now we are together,” and then from there the whole process of reification in all details started, and it took long.

Maybe it’s not yet fully completed when one still sees differences. But what needs to change, and what can also relieve, I think, the reluctant sides, is not to leave the political decision at the end, but to bring it now and then to leave for the end the merit-based process of every country.

Meaning that there is a coincidence. Ursula has seven kids. EU has seven candidates. So, Ursula’s kids didn’t grow up in the neighbourhood. They grew around the table. She didn’t say to her daughter, “Go and spend some time with that Russian gang gangster at the corner.”, because now mama is busy. She didn’t say to her son, “Go and play with some Chinese toys because now the table is for the adults.”

Everyone was around the table. But, of course, not everyone around the table had the same, had the same voice and had the same say and even the same food. Right? So, I think Europe should find the Helmut Kohl moment and say, all around the table, everyone, and then what each and everyone take from the table, this depends on the merit-based process.

You open a chapter, and you close. For that chapter, you are a full member, and you can be part of the table. You are still working on another chapter. Then, for that chapter, you are just one of the kids. Still, it’s not feasible to tell Ukraine lies, but it’s very, it’s very feasible to tell Ukraine, “Come and sit around the table, and we are all together politically united, one Europe.” Then, when it comes to agricultural policy, time will, time will show, life will show, but we have many other things in common together.

We cannot remember that we are one Europe only when there is aggression and we are invited around the table, or only when there is a pandemic and we are around the table, or when there is a wave of illegal, immigration hitting Europe and then we are needed around the table because there is a route crossing here. We have to be around the table all the way. It’s the Columbus egg. It’s very easy. Just do it like Nike. Well, this was my, few words. Trust me, I can speak much longer.

I want to again thank everyone and especially congratulate the new ambassador of the European Union because it’s her first, and to be in your first appearance together with so many people coming from Europe. It’s really strong.  I don’t know how you did it, but it’s amazing. So, we have to ask more of you; what else can I say? I hope that the meeting will not go long and that you will have more time to spend outside because, in the end, you’ll get more information from the sun, from the colours, from the air, from the food, from the smiles of the people than from our boring speeches.

Thank you so much.