May 9 – Europe Day/ “In my opinion...”

2025-05-09 15:02:00, Opinione Majlinda Bregu

Like every May 9th, today I could have just said “Happy Europe Day”, posted a photo with the EU flag, “nell blue dipinto di blue”, or repeated some optimistic message about our European future. I have done it often in the last 20 years. But today, simply, briefly and directly, I have something else.

A united Europe was born 75 years ago. It was not a reward for the perfect, but a project for the brave. It was not built all at once, nor with perfect plans. There would certainly be no European Union if the political judgment of the division of the “good” and “bad” sides had been more stubborn than the vision of the future.

The unification came about because the enemies of World War II decided to see each other as partners in a common political project.

Today, in 2025, Europe is not the same as it was 75 years ago. Nor is it the same as it was 22 years ago, when enlargement with the Western Balkans was promised. It is urgently reorganizing itself: from defense and cybersecurity, to confronting climate change, competitiveness, innovation, technological independence, energy autonomy, etc., etc.

We in the Balkans are also increasingly talking about these challenges. But political ambitions and eloquence do not keep pace with decisions and policies for solutions.

1. What we need is not simply a “European perspective”. We need a strategic reformulation. A new way of being a real part of Europe not as new members in waiting, but as part of the whole, contributing in real time to the configuration of the new infrastructure of defense, security, competitiveness, innovation and so on.

For more than two decades, the EU has tried to balance the conditions for membership with our reforms, offering gradual integration before full membership.

But three fundamental developments are making this logic insufficient:

1. Europe's priorities have changed faster than the instruments of enlargement.

2. Problems with trust in institutions and the quality of life in the region are only increasing.

3. The decline of societies and the departure of young people is taking on existential proportions.

This is not a gap that can be closed only through membership chapters.

2. The question is not whether we will be EU member states in 2030 or 2034, but whether the region will move towards the EU at the same pace in terms of facing the main challenges of Europe today - security, competitiveness, energy, independence of technological development, support for innovators and talents, etc., etc.?

Because if we miss this window of time, we risk not just a delay, but a complete disconnect.

Do we have time until we become member states? Well, no. In a world where nothing is certain anymore, we just don't have time.

1. Safety and protection

Security is not maintained only with weapons, but by educating generations about what is worth protecting: freedoms, media, education, environment, values. The Balkans must be part of EU strategies today, because pollution, climate change, depopulation, disinformation do not wait for the opening and closing of chapters.

2. Innovation and competitiveness

While the world is already in the Star Wars era, honing weapons through artificial intelligence, we still watch with pleasure how the gates of Minas Tirith are defended in "The Lord of the Rings."

We invest only 0.08% of the budget in research and innovation. Isn't it time, in addition to access to programs, to negotiate our role in the common strategy for the future?

3.Human capital

From brain drain to brain circulation. It is time for a new EU-Balkan pact, to no longer seek only support for VET, but for brain return, for talent retention – through EU financial support for housing, tax breaks, joint research programmes, and realistic conditions for return to the country.

4.Budget

Talking about enlargement without talking about the budget is an illusion. The EU is preparing the new budgetary framework 2028–2034. Without a strong budget, it cannot face the challenges of rearmament and defense funds, let alone cover the obligations arising from enlargement.

Does the membership of Albania and Montenegro “burden” the EU budget? No. Even if all six Western Balkan countries join, the annual cost to the European budget would increase by around 12-15 billion euros – less than 1% of the Union’s GDP.

Europe owes us. Okay, in the classic sense of historical debt. But not for our remarkable ability to always be late to development.

Because tomorrow's membership is not just a matter of methodology, but a matter of survival. Depopulation, emigration, technological development, cyberattacks. These are challenges that require answers now.

Access to markets, technology and security, stopping the brain drain, transforming the economy – these are no longer matters for negotiation, nor will the solution come from a symbolic date. Negotiations with Europe are the most important process to provide our guarantees./ CNA