Albania really really really wants in

BlitzKrieg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8404766.stm

its a strange contrast to the press we normally get about the EU

Around 500,000 people gathered in Tirana, Albania, in support of the country's efforts to join the European Union.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha delivered an address at the rally, which turned into a sea of blue European Union and Nato flags.

Does anyone know if we threw on big shows like this back in the sixties and early seventies to get accepted?

Scofflaw

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8404766.stm

its a strange contrast to the press we normally get about the EU

They want to be oppressed?

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Does anyone know if we threw on big shows like this back in the sixties and early seventies to get accepted?

I don't think so...although I presume the European Movement Ireland ran some kind of events.

cordially,
Scofflaw

BlitzKrieg

ooh ooh I just remembered, Albania is very close to kosovo (albanian kosovons...eh I remember something from my trip there ) so that could be why they are very pro nato/eu...

View

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

ooh ooh I just remembered, Albania is very close to kosovo (albanian kosovons...eh I remember something from my trip there ) so that could be why they are very pro nato/eu...

Naw, they just want to get in at the same time as Serbia. You know a bit like us and Britain...

COUCH WARRIOR

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

ooh ooh I just remembered, Albania is very close to kosovo (albanian kosovons...eh I remember something from my trip there ) so that could be why they are very pro nato/eu...

kosovar albanians?

belge boy

This is a great sight. Allow a European nation like Albania into EU and kick out the anti-Europeans(Brits, Swedish, Irish)

Lockstep

COUCH WARRIOR wrote: »

kosovar albanians?

Yeah, Kosovans are ethnic Albanians.

I know a Kosovo lad who tried to explain it to me. They're the same people but had some split in the early 20th century. or something.

belge boy wrote: »

This is a great sight. Allow a European nation like Albania into EU and kick out the anti-Europeans(Brits, Swedish, Irish)

Actually, we're one of the most pro-EU countries within the Union. Lumping us in with the Scandinavians and Brits is bizarre.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

murphaph

belge boy wrote: »

This is a great sight. Allow a European nation like Albania into EU and kick out the anti-Europeans(Brits, Swedish, Irish)

Take out Denmark and the Netherlands and France too though (all have rejected various important EU treaties remember )

Then open the gates to Albania and Turkey to join, but don't forget the rest of the dysfunctional Balkans. The EU will be a fine place when all these reforms are carried out.

It'd be like the US ejecting Texas or New Mexico and replacing it with erm, Mexico. Lol. Good plan.

ejmaztec

Corruption, electoral fraud, people and drug trafficking. Albania would be the black sheep of the EU family.

Albania would spill out all of its inhabitants into the rest of the EU within five minutes of becoming a member.

May be okay in about 50 years.

belge boy

If the EU had done that to the Irish in 1973 you would be the Albania of Western Europe.

Lockstep

Does Albania match up to the Copenhagen Criteria though?

It's human rights abuses make me a bit suspect on the "rule of law" point.

ejmaztec

belge boy wrote: »

If the EU had done that to the Irish in 1973 you would be the Albania of Western Europe.

There are an awful lot of bridges in Belgium, for such a small place.

ejmaztec

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Does Albania match up to the Copenhagen Criteria though?

It's human rights abuses make me a bit suspect on the "rule of law" point.

This bit from the CIA World Factbook

"Although Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure."
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/al.html

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It seems that there must be a multitude of tax-dodgers in the country, which isn't a good sign that EU form-filling is going to be achieved without a lot of trouble. They obviously missed something in the translation when they went from communism to capitalism.

I don't think that anyone in the West knew what was going on in Albania during the communist years, as it was a closed country. Perhaps even then, they didn't do paper-work.

I think that their position is years behind the Turks, but who knows what deals are being struck in the background.

If Kosovo is allowed entry, Kosovo will all of a sudden have a significant increase in passport holders, so they may decide on both countries at the same time, and I hope that that's not going to be in the near future.



Given that countries like Italy fiddled statistics to join the Euro, I dread to think what the Albanians are capable of to get themselves into the EU.