Brussels, Prime Minister Edi Rama addresses the EU Enlargement Forum on behalf of Albania
The European Commission held today the EU Enlargement Forum, the first event of its kind dedicated to its 2024– 2029 priorities. Prime Minister Edi Rama, who was in Brussels as part of the agenda for the opening of the final negotiation cluster, addressed the Forum with a speech on behalf of Albania.
The EU Enlargement Forum is the European Commission’s flagship initiative that aims to elevate the discussion on EU enlargement as a shared political, societal and generational project, bringing together a broad and diverse range of participants under the motto “Completing the Union, Securing Our Future”.
The Enlargement Forum serves as a meeting point for all professionals working on one of the key priorities of the European Commission’s 2024–2029 mandate, actively engaged in the most ambitious enlargement agenda in more than a decade.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Dear Friends, Fellow Europeans,
Dear Gert Jan, and through you, dear Marta!
Thank you for the invitation and for placing me — once again — on this familiar battlefield of ideas about Europe’s future which lies ahead of us, with all its shades of grey and, still, the light of its remarkably resilient promise.
I am invited to speak about enlargement. But I must confess: on the way here, I caught myself wondering — what more can I possibly say about enlargement? I have spoken about it so often that sometimes I fear I could publish a book illustrating the evolution of my hair through the years, titled “The Complete Anatomy of an Enlargement Yet to Happen.”
And still — guess what?
I will neither give up on enlargement nor risk running out of words when it comes to enlargement, because enlargement is simply another word for Europe’s future itself.
It is precisely this inseparable link between enlargement and future that pushes me to speak about it not as the Prime Minister of Albania, not as the representative of a negotiating country, but as a European citizen of a continent whose story is a tapestry woven from war and peace, destruction and rebirth, rivalry and reconciliation.
And let me say it very clearly: instead of using the Brussels-born, technically heavy term “enlargement,” I prefer the word that speaks from the heart of our history and from the logic of our future: Reunification. Because that is what it truly is. The simple truth. A historical imperative. The only path for a continent that must rediscover its confidence, defend its peace, protect its prosperity, and maintain its relevance in a world moving fast, hard, and without mercy.
A Word for Marta, the woman that, in less than two weeks you complete your first year as our Commissioner for Enlargement. It feels like yesterday — not because time flies (which it does, and the more we age the faster it flies), but because you made these months dense with movement, dense with results, and, I must say, dense with an enthusiasm that until recently I thought Brussels had buried with the no chance to rebirth.
Yesterday, Albania opened the last five negotiating chapters — twenty-eight of them under your leadership. To be honest, not only can I not remember, but I cannot even imagine when enlargement last produced so much constructive controversy, so much positive pressure, so much genuine political oxygen.
And allow me to remind this room of something. For Albania, this journey has not been a straight path of applause. We come from a long way — first stigmatised and underestimated because of an international image shaped by our own bad deeds but also by the amplified stereotypes of Western media. Later appreciated by the Commission for our genuine extra efforts, yet refused by the Council for the sake of internal politics in a few member states — we had to live three moments of humiliation that tested our patience, our faith in Europe, and our will to keep going.
I will never forget — they are marked in my memory — the pale faces of European Council members after long night meetings here in Brussels, telling the cameras: “The EU did not deliver on its promises to Albania!” . But as Nietzsche would say, what did not kill us made us stronger — and the humiliation revealed itself as a blessing in disguise. We kept going with one firm conviction: We don’t do it for Berlin, Paris or The Hague. We do it for ourselves, our country, and our generations to come.
The EU is our open source of know-how. We learn faster, we continue to improve, and we keep going as if the negotiations were already opened — preparing ourselves to be fully up and running when the right moment would finally present itself. And here we are: standing straight and standing tall after opening, in only fourteen months, all chapters; having regained a huge amount of lost time; and having placed ourselves at the front of the Western Balkans block. Let me underline that this mesmerising success is not ours alone to claim.
In the last years, under the leadership of President von der Leyen, the Commission got back to the centre of the game. And in these twelve months, thanks to Marta, her team have conducted a complex orchestra — aligning instruments long out of tune, creating harmony where for years there was dissonance, and restoring the precious trust between the European Union and those who aspire to join it.
And on the other hand, there are the member states — with a renewed vigour for the great project of reunification, under the striking and sobering light of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. I am sincerely grateful to all and as a witty Brit once wrote: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
Dear friends,
In the latest European barometer about attitudes towards EU enlargement, Albania hit the top of the chart with 92% of people faithful to the EU and 91% supportive of EU accession.
Let me first set this record straight and make sure that you don’t even dare to think that the remaining 8% or 9% are unfaithful to the EU or — God forbid — against EU accession.
No, they simply happened to be asked by the survey people right after a dispute with their wives or husbands, or in the middle of a nerve-wrecking Tirana traffic jam, or simply just a minute before the World Cup qualifiers against Serbia.
So, if you take away these interfering daily-life factors, Albanians are 100% faithful to the EU and 100% supportive of EU accession.
Let me now tell you what’s wrong with us, by starting with a reminder about something many in the European Union — born into velvet peace, raised within cushions of permanent growth, and used to a comfort zone where even the volume of snoring is regulated not to disturb the cat sleeping beside the bed — gradually forget: Remembering how and why Europe was born. It was born when our continent was torn in two. An Iron Curtain — made not of metal but of ideology and fear — cut through nations, families, destinies. Behind it, the roaring beast of totalitarianism reminded everyone on the Western side that the threat towards freedom, democracy and peace was real, was close, was worth the “creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it,” as it was put in that exact sentence of the Schuman Declaration of May 9th, 1950. Doesn’t it sound painfully actual?
Well, we Albanians did not need Vladimir Putin’s roars at the gates of the European Union to feel the dangers threatening us and the Union itself through the Western Balkans.
Nor did we need to struggle much to remember the long deep darkness of totalitarianism, from which we rushed into the streets of Tirana, screaming: “We want Albania like all Europe!”
For us, the EU is still today what it was for the founding fathers. A crazy idea, at the time.
A revolutionary idea: that ancient enemies could become partners, that sovereignty could be pooled for the common good, that peace could be built not on domination but on cooperation and solidarity, under the same sky of freedom and in the light of democracy, and despite doubts, despite obstacles, the idea made its way and the project transformed itself into the European Union — the most visionary model of peaceful integration in human history.
Six and a half decades later, this remains true. No one has ever built anything like it.And no one ever will. So better be part of it. That is what Albanians think, want and will do — whatever it will take — because we learned in the hard way that “peace is the only battle worth wagging” and the founding fathers way is the only one worth following.
When, not long ago, enlargement was practically banned as a word from the EU vocabulary, it smelled to me like a betrayal of the very reason for which the European Union was put in motion — because in my eyes enlargement carries the most powerful answer to the question:
“What does the European Union stand for?” Let me rank here five simple truths.
- Reunification heals historical wounds. It reconnects nations whose destinies were forcibly separated. It recognises the intrinsic European identity of those kept outside by force, not by choice. France and Germany once taught us how enemies can rebuild trust — and enlargement continues that legacy. Interrupting that continuity is betraying the EU itself.
- Reunification extends the zone of peace. The EU’s foundational purpose is peace. Every enlargement has expanded not just the geography of the Union but the geography of stability, democracy, and the rule of law. It goes without saying that a Europe whole and free will be safer the moment the EU ceases to exist as the only geopolitical creature with two borders — the external border and the internal border circumscribing the Western Balkan countries within the rest.
- Reunification fulfills an old promise. To those who fought for freedom, who embraced democracy with courage, Europe was a beacon. This was the message of Thessaloniki in 2003. Just imagine, even for a moment, the Baltic States and Poland today outside the EU and NATO. But that old promise must be kept in its entirety — and not keeping it, by keeping us Western Balkan countries outside the EU, is not only playing with the fire already burning at the Union’s external border, but also burning in that fire the moral authority of the EU itself.
- Reunification unleashes prosperity. Yes, enlargement is not only political — it is economic too. New members expand the market, bring dynamism, innovation, and youthful energy. And the Western Balkans — let alone Albania and Montenegro to start with — are not a burden. At all. On the contrary: we bring resources, location, population, energy — assets for the Union’s future and, last but not least, we bring a large smile to the EU’s very often dark face. Not bad. At all.
- Enlargement works. Every time the EU invited new members, the benefits outweighed the fears. Every time. There is no reason — none — to believe it will be different now. On the contrary: the sooner it happens, the better it will be. For the EU. And let me continue to cut the rope by adding that yes, we need an answer for all those who say: “It doesn’t work with 27. How can it work with 29, 33, or even 35 — with all their vetoes and all their commissioners to start with?” Well, true — if we see it from that angle, it can’t. But we can make it work if we put the EU first and leave our national egos at bay for a while. No vetoes. No commissioners for us. How does it sound? It’s doable. Let’s talk.
Dear friends,
Our planet spins in one direction, but the world does not. The world is feverish, turbulent, unpredictable. More and more. Thinking that anything will go back to the old normal is a dangerous delusion. Acting based in such a delusion is dangerously reckless and it just grows the pain of the inevitable awakening. Democracy is in retreat. Demagoguery is in advance. Human rights are under attack. Our system is challenged from without and within. Geopolitical storms are gathering. Not only a divided Europe is weaker, more vulnerable to pressure, manipulation, and malign influence, but it looks more like an attractive prey for agressors and speculators then like a strong competitor in the new game of big powers.
Reunification through enlargement is Europe’s most strategic response. It is the core of European strategic autonomy. A united Europe is a Europe that shapes its destiny, not one that drifts inside somebody else’s storm.
Those who oppose enlargement often speak of cost. But they neglect the bill presented by non-enlargement. Just to mention a few ingredients of a longer list: sense of powerlessness, economic stagnation, geopolitical penetration by actors who wear friendly faces but do not share European values, A Europe with a hole in its heart, A Europe with a permanent vulnerability on its periphery, A Europe that betrays its own founding idea, is a Europe not fit to survive the new game as a big player.
Reunification is not a favour granted by old members to new ones. It is a shared destiny. A shared burden. A shared now and tomorrow, in a world where EU needs the rest as much as the rest need EU.
Sometimes I have to answer a not-easy question: Why should the EU care about getting Albania at the table? Well, the answer is easier than the question: Albania brings to the table the old great spirit of Europe and adds to its crown another small precious gem — not only without any cost worth mentioning, but with the benefit of an example that will serve the EU in the short and the long term.
Albania is ready. We are fully committed and we have demonstrated it. We have delivered reforms and we are not going to stop for even a minute. We are investing in our future with the mindset of a country that already feels responsible towards the Union, day by day. We ask nothing but “the opportunity to serve Europe, so that Europe may serve peace,” as Jean Monnet would say in our case too.
And to conclude — without betraying the Balkan man in me — allow me the small indulgence of lecturing Marta. I believe that, while Marta is writing history with us, please make sure history also writes about her into its pages. Which is why, when your mandate ends, you simply must publish a book titled: “The Complete Anthology of an Enlargement of My Making.” And I give Marta my word — with the whole Balkan neighbourhood as witness —I will graciously refrain from claiming copyright for Albania’s chapter.
So thank you very much for your patience, which is very inspiring to me because I’m told that most of you are coming from the same neighborhood and having a young generation so patient shows that European Union torture is working on us. And in the same time proves that we are ready to be part of the European Union without bringing headaches from the Balkans, but helping them to endure their Balkanization process, which is already going on in many of their countries.
Thank you so much.