By Sali Berisha/ With the DP after May 11, Albania worthy of being part of the great European family

2025-05-09 17:30:00, Opinione Sali Berisha

Sali Berisha

Dear friends, today is May 9, the day when Europe celebrates peace and unity, a date that marks the anniversary of the "Schuman Declaration", the historic proposal made by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in 1950, which laid the foundations of European cooperation.

For the European Union, this May 9th has the distinction of being the 75th anniversary of the visionary ideas of its founding; for us Albanians, it cannot be less than an omen of the knock of change 48 hours before our country regains control of what for 12 years was dusty, the European journey.

It is difficult to find another nation still outside the doors of the European family that has linked its dreams to a united Europe more than Albania and the Albanians. Emerging almost from the antechamber of social death of the most savage dictatorship in the bosom of the continent, the Albanians loved Albania like all of Europe when they knew about Europe only in letters, only in desires, secretly and under fear.

The Democratic Party had the courage and historical fortune to lead the country from the beginnings of the first democratic Albanian state, initially with reforms and then with the institutionalization of the steps towards its membership. Never has a second political force left as an undeniable trace in its legacy more steps and achievements towards Albania's membership in the EU than the Democratic Party.

Under her leadership, Albanians hoped, believed and experienced the symbolic agreement on the path to membership, free and visa-free movement in Europe and the Schengen area, deep economic, legal and political reforms for alignment with European standards, up to the application for candidate status, a status which Albanians enjoyed shortly after the democrats left power.

But, like an iron curtain separating two eras, the coming to power of Rilindja froze every step, every progress, every further development of the integration process. Albania, which had sought for years to sit dignifiedly as an equal at the EU tables, was alienated in the European arena in image, status and prestige.

Our country was known in these 12 years for no more than the transgressive circus of the prime minister without any responsibility for the nation he led, without feeling the slightest state responsibility when in 2019, the second chamber of representatives in the Dutch parliament voted in favor of the motion to restore visas for Albanian citizens after concerns about criminal activities, or when in 2021, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Permanent Representative to the EU, asked the European Commission to restore the visa regime for Albania.

The only news from the EU during the three mandates of the government, offered as progress in the progress of the EU membership process, was the opening of negotiations for 33 chapters of the acquis. The truth is that this step actually came as a result of reforming the membership process for EU candidate countries and in no way as a reward for a country that every year rolls over in international indices of democracy and freedom.

A narco-dictatorship can never be part of the EU, Albania was not offered to the European Union as such, Albanians were not offered to Europe as citizens of a country that sows crime.

Therefore, this 75th anniversary of the EU, my friends, will be remembered also for us Albanians as the year when the journey towards the EU was taken back into the hands of the democrats, to fulfill their commitment, a European Albania that deserves to be part of the European Union as such. Promises are kept, commitments are fulfilled, dreams are carried to the end.

European Albania will be the homeland of Albanians, of teachers and doctors who are paid no less than their colleagues in the West, of young men and women who study with the standards of their peers, of Albanian and foreign investors, the one that exchanges economy and not crime with other European countries.

This will be the Albania after May 11, the magnificent Albania, worthy of being part of the great European family./ CNA