Albania starts talks to join EU after bloc's 'wake-up call'

After years stuck in the European Union's waiting room, Albania started formal talks on joining the bloc on Tuesday. Prime Minister Edi Rama said the meeting in Luxembourg was "historic" and "emotional." And, he insisted, there is no turning back.

"Choosing an alternative to full EU membership would be like giving up the way of life we finally choose after enduring ages of darkness under empires and regimes that were imposed on us," Rama told reporters.

"It's a matter of life or death for our dream to leave future generations a country where individual freedom is unquestionable, the rule of law is respected, and democracy functions for everyone."

The EU has a long list of criteria for aspirant members, ranging from functioning democratic institutions to anti-corruption measures and guarantees for press freedom. Membership hopefuls have to prove alignment with standards or implement reforms to achieve them.

Now, Albanian officials start the nitty-gritty of negotiations for the conditions under which the country can join the club.

Albania aiming for 2030

Rama wants to secure his spot at the EU leaders' table by the end of this decade. However, there are no official dates or timelines in the EU accession process, and it tends to take years or even decades.

He acknowledged it's an "ambitious" goal, not least given the EU's history of delaying, disagreeing and dodging serious discussions on enlargement.

EU enlargement was once seen as a long, winding and painful road to nowhere. Michael Emerson, a researcher with the Centre for European Policy Studies, says the bloc has been "pretending the enlargement process is alive" by offering piecemeal integration steps that amount to little more than enhanced partnership agreements that "can go on for as long as the eye can see."

North Macedonia, Albania's eastern neighbor, has been waiting since 2009 for member states to accept the EU executive's recommendations that it begin formal accession talks. Serbia has been negotiating membership details for 10 years, Montenegro for 12.

Ukraine war a 'wake-up call' to EU

Still, the internal EU mood has changed since February 2022 when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and Rama knows it.

"This moment is particular, and, I must say, thanks to Vladimir Putin who, by a ruthless war of aggression, woke up even the most skeptical and made them see the reality that the Western Balkans are needed for a stronger European Union," he told DW and other media on the sidelines of Monday's talks.

"We'll run fast to ensure that this great window of opportunity does not close without us being in the European Union."

Emerson says Albania's chances of eventually making it across the line are "good" so long as Tirana "manages the crucial task of rule of law reform."

He thinks Montenegro, one of the EU's nine official candidates along with other Western Balkan states, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Turkey, may be the country most likely to unlock full membership first.

North Macedonia left waiting in the wings?

However, Emerson remains skeptical of whether EU states will really deliver on their recent promises to speed up enlargement. Albania was once coupled on its path to Brussels with North Macedonia, a country which has even changed its name to satisfy Greece.

But now Albania's neighbor western has been left lagging behind, its bid tangled in a bilateral dispute with EU member Bulgaria over language, history and the rights of the Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia.

Rama said he felt "sad" about North Macedonia's quandary. "History cannot be a reason to stop the accession talks for any country," he said.

Is the EU ready for new members?

Some analysts say that kind of stalemate is exactly why the EU has to rewrite its own rules if it wants to be able to function with more members.

Thu Nguyen, Deputy Director of the Jacques Delors think tank, is among a group of researchers who recommend the EU drop its requirements for unanimous backing among countries for big decisions like sanctions or enlargement.

The idea, Nguyen wrote on X, is "to decrease the potential of blockage by individual veto players."

Emerson, the European policy researcher, also thinks that rules requiring unanimous approval for each "tiny step" of the enlargement process are unworkable.

But this looks like an impossible circle to square — reversing unanimity rules requires a unanimous vote.

Hungary vows to hang on to veto rights

Hungary is a loud proponent of EU enlargement and has pushed the issue during its tenure chairing the EU's council of member states. But when DW asked Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto whether Budapest would be willing to give up veto rights, the answer was clear.

"I think that giving up the unanimity requirement would lead to the ruining of the European Union," Szijjarto, who chaired Tuesday's talks with Albania, told reporters.

"The big ones would decide about important issues, and the job of the smaller or mid-sized countries would only be to say 'yes, ja, oui, si.' And this is not how a country should be treated."

Budapest is regularly accused of using its veto to extract political concessions from Brussels, something it denies.

Asked by DW about the prospect of internal reforms, the EU's outgoing enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, himself Hungarian, insisted the bloc could enlarge without fundamental changes to its setup.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp