To Join or Not to Join?

Observations on Attitudes towards Albanias Potential Accession to the EU

Timothy Hagen
ENG 101 and 105
ARCH, BINF, CE, CEN, ECE, PIR
6 November 2012
Example of an Albania Today Essay

Honor Statement: I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others use
of unauthorized aid.

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We want to join the EU because we care a lot about what other countries think.
-Anonymous Albanian Interviewee
One hundred years ago Albania gained independence from the Ottoman
Empire. Yet today Albania is moving towards unification not with an empire, but with
the winner of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prizethe European Union. One key question of
significance is this: What do Albanians think of such a union? Instead of providing a
large-scale survey of opinions on EU membershipsuch surveys have already been
conductedthis article provides a brief qualitative perspective based on formal and
informal interviews with a limited but diverse group of Albanians and friends of
Albania. The first part of the article includes a summary of previous surveys on the
topic, while the latter part includes a summary of the interviewees opinions and
rationale for and against Albanian membership in the EU and a brief analysis of
those opinions.
Recent quantitative surveys show widespread support for EU membership in
Albania. The Gallup Balkan Monitor has been keeping track of the opinions of Balkan
populations in recent years and shows that between 2006 and 2011 the percentage
of Albanian respondents who thought EU membership is a good thing stayed fairly
consistent between 80.9 and 88.1 percent. These consistent finding over five years
accord with a survey, Albanian Public Perceptions of Socio-Cultural and Foreign
Policy Issues, conducted by The Center for European Studies and the Department of
Political Science and International Relations at Epoka University (Yenign, zcan,
and Baltac et al. 2011) that found that 91.79 percent of survey respondents
supported Albanias entry to the EU. Thus the question of whether most Albanians
think EU membership is a good idea is well establishedthe overwhelming majority
of Albanians do think that EU membership is a good idea.

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Yet several questions remain: what do Albanians think about the benefits of
EU membership; what would be the benefits and dangers of EU membership; and
how realistic is such membership? The survey, Albanian Public Perceptions of SocioCultural and Foreign Policy Issues (ibid), tries to answer some of these questions. It
finds that 48.84 percent support EU membership because The economy would
improve, 33.3 percent support membership because it Would affect the
development of democracy, 11.20 percent support membership because The
safety would increase, and 6.76 percent said Other (ibid, 40). The same survey
found that 4.98 percent of respondents did not want Albania to join the EU. Of
these, 25.93 percent had the pessimistic attitude that Nothing would change if
Albania joined the EU, while 22.22 percent said, It will be a part of the hegemony of
the EU, 18.52 percent said, Albania will lose the cultural values, and another
18.52 percent said, It will lose the national values. The remaining 14.81 percent
said, Other (ibid, 45). Despite providing some more detail, these responses are
divided into simple categories and do not give rich details into the reasons why
Albanians think the country should or should not join the EU.
To better address that question, the author surveyed several people,
including five staff and one student at Epoka University and had several informal
conversations with other individuals not related to Epoka University to find their
opinions on the benefits and disadvantages of Albania joining the EU. This is a very
limited sample, but provides some richer insight into the above questions and adds
a qualitative approach to the quantitative approaches of the Gallup and Epoka
surveys.
Most respondents agreed that joining the EU is a good idea in the long run,
although several of them noted that doing so will likely cause initial economic

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hardship for small businesses and farmers. The reasons for joining the EU were
diverse, but articulate: One respondent noted that although some larger countries
may complain of losing a measure of sovereignty when joining the EU, such would
not be the case with Albania. This is because Albania is a small country, powerfully
influenced by the US and the EU, so joining the EU will only formalize the current
influence of the EU on Albanian affairs. Two respondents noted that Albania is a key
strategic player in the Balkans, as it does not suffer from the internal ethnic,
nationalist, or religious tensions that neighboring countries struggle with. This, in
addition to the fact that Albanians in neighboring countries are usually one of the
involved parties in the identity-based tensions, gives Albania a unique position to
act as big brother and advocate for the Albanians in neighboring countries.
Albania can encourage neighboring Albanians to work towards peace and can insist
that neighbors uphold human rights. Thus Albanias membership in the EU would in
turn benefit the EU and give it greater leverage for peace in the region. Some
respondents thought that this benefit to the EU might motivate the EU to admit
Albania earlier than its economic or political progress would otherwise warrant. One
respondent noted in particular that EU integration is a necessity for peace in the
region and throughout Europe, remarking that all Epoka staff must advocate EU
integration, for otherwise the Balkansand Europe, should the EU project fail
would face the specter of renewed nationalist, identity-based, and civilizational
conflicts that led up to and included the World Wars.
Beyond benefits to the EU and region, several respondents noted benefits for
Albania, particularly in terms of improving transparency, accountability, and
competition. One respondent noted that the closed political, academic, and
business environment in Albania fostered more corruption and nepotism. If Albania

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were to join the EU, the constant interaction with open, transparent, competitive,
and corruption-free institutions would force local businesses, universities, and
politicians to higher levels of excellence and integrity. This respondent noted that
although there is widespread corruption in Albania at the moment, Albanians who
go abroad for work or studies are able to excel in honest competition; thus they
would thrive with EU integration that should reward hard-working, honest
institutions and individuals. Another respondent likewise noted that joining the open
common market of the EU, while initially difficult for many Albanian businesses,
would encourage and reward excellence.
One respondent hoped that Albania and Kosovo would unite prior to EU
integration, saying that if two countries that share the same culture and language
cannot unite, it is improbable that they would succeed in the multi-cultural, multilingual EU. This respondent believed that the EU would support such a move, saying
that the EU would likely prefer to include one Albanian country rather than two.
The question of cultural or national values was anticipated by one
respondent, who objected to the discussion of East vs. West, and said that human
rights are universal. As the EU has affirmed many of these human rights, joining the
EU is not choosing the West over the East, but choosing to join an organization that
upholds universal human rights.
One respondenta studentclaimed not to know much about the
implications of EU membership, but said that little would change. He noted that the
most important relationship to the EUthe freedom of travel to EU countriesis
now enjoyed by Albanians. Regarding the freedom to work in EU countries, this
respondent said that those Albanians who have wanted to work in the EU have

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already been emigrating since the early 1990s, so EU accession would have little
impact.
When asked to consider any negative implications of joining the EU, most
respondents noted that accession would be difficult for small- and medium-sized
businesses and farmers. As most businesses in Albania are small family-owned
ones, and as most farmers own small plots of land and use traditional, nonmechanized farming techniques, EU accession would likely drive many families and
farmers out of businesses, as they likely will not be able to compete with the
economies of scale and technical know-how in large retail chains or agrobusinesses. An implicit fear is that farmers would go bankrupt, lose their land, and
be reduced from the status of independent entrepreneurs to simple laborers
dependent on employment in fields or businesses owned by wealthy compatriots or
foreigners.
Several respondents said that the Albanian economy must improve
significantly before it joins the EU. One respondent argued that Albania should
carefully plan out its economic strategy before joining, and that Albania should
especially focus on developing an export-focused agricultural sector before it joins.
This respondent said that Albania should first focus on improving its economy; only
then would it be in a place to decide whether or not it wants to join the EU: It is
important to reach some standards; we should focus on that target. Our target must
not be just to be part of EU. Today we have an EU; tomorrow maybe a lot of things
will happen... But if we reach the standards, then we can easily be part of them, if
we want, and they will be happy to host us too.
One Epoka respondent claimed not to have much information on the EU, but
still said that joining the EU was not a good idea because the costs would outweigh

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the benefits. This respondent took Albanias NATO membership as an example,
claiming that Albania spent large sums of money to fulfill NATO obligations, but saw
little tangible benefit. The respondent worried that such would also be the case with
EU membership.
Several individuals not related to Epoka University were also informally
interviewed by the author. Some agreed that Albania should join the EU, as doing so
would improve tourism, the business environment, travel and work opportunities,
and hopefully reduce corruption. Yet three of the individuals surveyed took a dim
view of Albanias potential accession to the EU, and their responses are noteworthy
because of their uniqueness:
One respondent echoed the Epoka respondent who worried about the
financial implications of EU membership. This respondent alleged that the EU is not
fully transparent in its spending, and that billions of Euros are improperly accounted
for each year. The worry was that Albania would be obliged to contribute money to
the EU that would then be improperly spent.
Another non-Epoka respondent cautioned against Albania joining the EU in
light of Romanias experience. This respondent alleged that in Romania local
farmers have a difficult time selling produce because of the bureaucratic challenges
of being certified as meeting EU standards; that the grocery stores thus mostly sell
imported food. This respondent also claimed that a Romanian contact reported that
in state hospitals, doctors will not provide quality care unless bribed, a practice
alleged to be common in Albanian hospitals as well. Thus the respondent did not
think that EU accession would bring many benefits to Albania.
One very interesting, older respondent from a barber-shop in Tirana remarked
that Albania should not join the EU at allthat in light of the President Woodrow

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Wilsons support for Albanian territorial integrity and sovereignty, and in light of the
US support for Kosovo, that Albania should instead try to become the 51 st state of
the USA.
In summary of the interviews, the majority of respondents believe that EU
membership is the best future for Albania. Several believe that Albanias
membership in the EU would be in the best interests of peace and stability in the
region. Many respondents agreed that Albania needs to improve economically
before joining the EU; otherwise its businesses and farmers would not be able to
compete. While some think that EU membership will reduce corruption in Albania,
others think that EU membership will have no impact on corruption, but that Albania
must use other methods to solve the problem of corruption itself, with or without EU
membership.
These qualitative interviews are not statistically representative of the larger
Albanian population, nor in the case of allegations of EU spending or Romanian
agriculture, are they independently verified. The opinions in the Gallup (2006-2011)
and Epoka surveys (Yenign, zcan, and Baltac et al. 2011) are more quantitatively
reliable. However, these few interviews give a deeper and richer perspective on
what some Albaniansand two friends of Albaniathink about the merits of
Albanias potential membership in the EU.
This brief analysis is important, as it gives a snapshot of attitudes in Albania
today. It is hoped that in some humble way, these short interview summariesthat
may shortly precede Albanias accession to the EUmight parallel the snapshots
that Edith Durham records in High Albania of a few Albanians hopes for a better
government, written just three years before Albanian independence in 1912.
Furthermore, by recording a range of opinions on EU accession, this short article will

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hopefully spark further debate on the issue so that whatever Albanians choose, it
will be carefully, thoughtfully, and deliberately chosen.

References
Gallup Balkan Monitor. 2006-2011. Survey Data. http://www.balkan-monitor.eu
Yenign Cneyt, Salih zcan, and Cemal Baltac et al. 2011. Albanian Public
Perceptions of Socio-Cultural and Foreign Policy Issues. The Center for
European Studies and the Department of Political Science and International
Relations at Epoka University.