Europe Day, Xhaçka: The region has made a lot of progress towards building functional, modern and democratic states

“I always welcome these opportunities to discuss openly on the European perspective of Albania, especially when part of the discussion are also young people who from my experience always contribute to more open, more direct discussions without gloves.
May 9 has been an important day in the Albanian calendar for decades. It is a day that for us Albanians has a very special meaning compared to the way this day is perceived in the EU, because on May 9 we do not just celebrate Europe, but above all our dream to become part of Europe and all that dream supported by the European Union has made for the transformation of our region. The European Union has done a lot for the region and has done a lot for Albania.

It is enough to remember the situation in which our region was in the 1990s to understand how extraordinary this transformation has been. Because for most of that decade the situation in what is now called the Western Balkans was more similar to the situation in the civil war Syria or Ukraine today under Russian aggression, than to the reality that this region is experiencing today. The bloodshed and horrors of the wars of disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, massacres and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and later in Kosovo under the attacks of a criminal regime like Milosevic, are difficult today for to imagine if you did not live that period.

And if this region, despite problems that are not that have disappeared or been solved all of them, has undoubtedly made so much progress towards building functional, modern and democratic states, towards guaranteeing peace, stability, security and regional cooperation, towards the development of welfare, this is obviously due to the strong commitment and support given by the European Union. And I would say without diminishing the importance, that even more than the financial support that has been truly extraordinary, owes to the dream, the European perspective which offered the region an alternative to the nationalist and divisive policies, which as one word produces in region more history than the region could consume.
Albanians, not only in Albania, but throughout the region, are undoubtedly the people who have believed more and worked harder for this dream. Polls consistently show Albanian support for European integration at over 90%. But in fact there is no need for polls to understand how much Albanians believe in European integration. It is enough to see what role the Albanians have played as a factor of stability in the region and as a guarantor of the Euro-Atlantic orientation of the countries of the region, to understand that no other people is as committed as the Albanians to the European perspective.

Proof of this commitment is today the attitude and contribution that Albania is giving regarding the war in Ukraine. Our country, as you know, has long maintained a 100% alignment with the EU in foreign policy, which has undoubtedly continued in this situation, with the full alignment of our country with all the packages of austerity measures approved by the EU.
Not only that, but today as never before, Albania is playing a leading role in the global diplomatic arena, in the Security Council where it is making an active and substantial contribution in support of Ukraine and the heroic struggle of the people of its against illegal Russian aggression. We Albanians really have many reasons to be grateful to the European Union. Albania and our region as a whole are the best proof of the transformative power that the European dream has when combined with a proper and strategic approach.
Today, this combination of factors is more needed than ever. Because the truth is that for some time now there has unfortunately been a lack of strategic clarity in relation to our region. It is enough to see how this region right in the middle of the European Union, once an area where the EU enjoyed a full strategic franchise, today after the Russian aggression in Ukraine, is seen as one of the weak nodes in Europe’s security architecture to understand how real this is.

Therefore, on this day, which celebrates the beginning of a truly unprecedented experiment in the history of mankind, I want to call on the European Union, but also every member state, to regain the focus, to regain the strategic clarity that made possible the creation of the European Union itself and see our region in the same spirit. We deserve to have a clear European perspective, these young people who are here today deserve to live in the EU just like their peers in the member states and not have to wait for them for decades and decades with an EU that remains as a vision that never approaches the horizon, as it unfortunately shot my generation“, Said the minister.

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