On the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Albania and Hungary, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) in partnership with the Department of Eastern and Central European History and Historical Russistics of the Eötvös Loránd University held an international conference on 24-25 March 2022. As part of the conference, a panel discussion entitled “EU Integration and Albania: Prospects and Realities” was held on 25 March. The roundtable discussion was moderated by Ferenc Németh, IFAT Research Fellow, and panelists included Eralda Methasani Çani, Professor of Public Law at University of Tirana; Alba Çela, Executive Director of Albanian Institute for International Studies; and Gellért Horváth, EU expert at Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania.
Eralda Methasani Çani presented Albania’s achievements and challenges in the European integration process. The professor assessed that Albania has made significant advancement in rule of law through the reform of the judicial system and the vetting process of judges and prosecutors. Ms Çani also pointed out that the reforms are currently challenging, citing that nearly 60 percent of judges in the court system are missing due to strict personnel regulations. Another challenge, according to Ms Çani, is the fight against corruption and organized crime, the eradication of which is essential in the integration process. The annual monitoring reports of the European Commission and OECD’s SIGMA also show that Albania made progress in a few but moved backwards in several areas, mainly in public administration developments. At the same time, Ms Çani underlined that the slow integration process, which has stalled in recent years, is discouraging to people, most of whom still support EU accession.
In her speech, Alba Çela mentioned that the European Union is a project for peace and key for regional stability. She stressed that the EU supports regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, but the countries are divided and do not move together as a region. A current example is the bilateral dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, which also blocks Albania’s integration process. According to Ms Çela, the EU needs strategic vision to be able to become a geopolitical actor in the Western Balkans. The researcher stressed that the current armed conflict in Ukraine is an opportunity for the EU to act; it must continue to maintain the EU perspective while preserving its own credibility in the Western Balkans. This requires the EU to keep its promises such as the opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia and granting visa liberalization for Kosovo. In her conclusion, Ms Çela underlined that Hungarian–Albanian relations are the cornerstone of Albania’s European integration. She pointed out that Hungary is not only active in the region but also a strong supporter of enlargement. She emphasized that the V4 countries can indeed help with the EU integration of Western Balkans given their similar experiences in EU enlargement.
Gellért Horváth said that Hungary has always been a supporter of EU enlargement, pointing out the conclusion of Croatia’s accession negotiations during the Hungarian EU Presidency in 2011. Mr Horváth also highlighted that while the accession talks with Montenegro and Serbia have been slowed down for political reasons, Albania is currently stuck with the integration process because of the Bulgarian–Macedonian dispute. Similarly to Ms Cela, Mr Horváth underlined the importance of compliance with the EU norms; for instance, Tirana’s foreign policy is completely based on the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. In addition, Albania is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, where it also represents common European values. Mr Horváth pointed out that Hungary sees the Western Balkans primarily from a security perspective and an important element of this is EU accession, which can guarantee regional security. He agreed with Ms Çani that a large majority of Albanians support EU accession, and the European integration is part of everyday life in Albania. Like Ms Çela, Mr Horváth agreed that the EU needs a strategic vision for the region and the Czech EU Presidency in the second half of 2022 might also help to deliver the long-awaited results for the Western Balkans.