EU Integration/ Analyst Gjeta: It is necessary to analyze how ready Albania is to join without the right to veto or vote

2025-10-22 20:54:00, Politikë CNA

EU Integration/ Analyst Gjeta: It is necessary to analyze how ready Albania is

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Analyst and lecturer at the University of Birmingham in the UK, Altin Gjeta spoke to CNA TV regarding the process of integration of the Western Balkans region into the European Union. Asked if there is a new EU approach towards the Western Balkans, Gjeta said there is currently a political will for an accelerated integration of Montenegro and Albania into the EU.

The analyst said that enlargement has been one of the European Union's successful policies in the last 30-40 years and added that these two countries could join the EU within a period of 5 or 7 years despite problems with corruption, organized crime or democratic institutions.

Focusing on membership, Gjeta emphasized that the case of Albania must be carefully analyzed to see how ready our country is to become part of the EU, but without having the right to veto or vote.

"I think that at the moment we are speaking, there is a political will at high levels for an accelerated integration of Montenegro and Albania into the European Union. This is because in a context where the EU itself is seen as the geopolitical sick man of the world, Brussels wants a success. And enlargement has been one of the most successful policies of the European Union in the last 30-40 years. And at this moment we are speaking, I think that there is a real window of opportunity for Albania and Montenegro to join the European Union in a period of five or seven years, despite the problems they may have with corruption, organized crime, democratic institutions.

And in fact, this has been a kind of hypocrisy with which the European Union has treated the Western Balkans as a whole, because none of the Central and Eastern European countries has fully met the criteria. And I think that this is a good moment for Albania, for Montenegro, in particular, and it is a window of opportunity that should be used, but we also need to look at the mechanisms that the European Union would put into action to integrate these two countries into the European family. Because recently there has been a lot of talk, for example, about the possibility of integrating new countries into the EU, not only those of the Western Balkans, but also Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, which are aspiring countries and two of them have even opened negotiations, in a completely new format where these countries would not have the right to vote in central European institutions or the right of veto.

But we need to carefully analyze, I would say, the case of Albania, how willing we are to become part of a sui generis international mechanism, such as the European Union, without having a full voice in its decision-making. So we risk losing self-government in a way. I also think that an extremely careful analysis is needed, a kind of political vision to assess what the benefits and losses are. Although we as a people, but also as a country, have shown that we are one of the countries that most supports the country's integration into the European Union" , Gjeta said. /CNA