“Albania 2030 in the EU – The Path of Reforms” is the second high-level meeting, held today in Tirana, organized by the Parliament of Albania, where the draft national action plan was made public. This plan concludes the second phase of the process for deepening reforms in Good Governance, Anti-Corruption, and the Rule of Law.

The meeting was attended by the Speaker of the Parliament of Albania Elisa Spiropali, Prime Minister Edi Rama, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Bjorn Berge, Director for the Western Balkans at the Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Valentina Superti, as well as other representatives from international organizations and domestic institutions.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: I would like to begin my speech with a special thanks to Valentina and Bjorn, who are here with us today. This is not merely a formal expression of gratitude, but a necessary and heartfelt one, because the work of this special commission has been extremely important for us. It was crucial that this work be carried out by a complex group of institutions and human resources, and their presence here today is, at the same time, a recognition of this effort.

Not long ago, a survey was published regarding the level of support for the EU within the EU itself, as seen by the peoples who make up the European family. This survey has been published regularly since 1983. And since that year, there has never been a time when the EU has been perceived as more of a unified people within its own perimeter than it is today.

This marks a drastic shift in public perception within the EU, which naturally stems from the realization that what was once taken for granted, no longer is. Instinctively, the peoples of the EU—particularly in the West, who have been somewhat pampered by the fact that, for the first time in history, an entire generation has grown up without experiencing war—have become aware that the EU also represents a security perimeter. A security perimeter within which countries and their peoples feel protected, and want to remain protected, in all that they have achieved—especially in their individual freedoms and in their equality before the law.

Of course, this also extends to all the other aspects that make the EU an extraordinary political creation. I brought this up to say that, for us Albanians, the “why” behind the necessity of becoming a member of the EU has generally been easier to grasp—and remains easier to this day. For us Albanians, being a member of the EU means being, finally, free from our own history—from the shadow of our past—and ultimately secure in the knowledge that our individual freedoms and our equality before the law, for which we are making this great effort, will no longer be shifting attributes that depend on who happens to govern here in Tirana.

Regarding the reason we are here today, I believe it becomes even clearer when seen through the lens of the very front on which the EU lives and breathes. Since the start of the Commission’s work—which, I recall, was accompanied by confusion, distrust, and conspiracy theories that, unfortunately, even affected friends and representatives of the democratic community here in Tirana—it’s quite fascinating how Tirana, how Albania, has the peculiar ability to infect even friends from much “colder” countries with the charm and allure of gossip. This led the Commission into a phase where, on the one hand, we had great belief—and I think that belief is now clearly understood—in its value, exactly in the function of a word Valentina mentioned in her address: consolidation. The consolidation of this entire process and all the progress achieved in the fight against corruption and in strengthening the rule of law—above all, through good governance as a whole. Since May 27th, when the Commission began its work, we are now operating on an entirely new level.

We have officially opened two clusters of EU accession negotiations—and we are committed to opening more in the near future. Albania is now better positioned than ever in all European rankings related to good governance and anti-corruption.

As noted by both the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe and Valentina, GRECO’s positive assessment of our efforts in preventing corruption played a key role in Albania climbing 18 places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. We also received strong recognition from SIGMA, which clearly identified Albania as a regional leader in public finance management, public procurement, human resource management, and policy coordination.  Additionally, the Bertelsmann Foundation ranked Albania among just eight countries—out of 137 globally—that have made the most substantial progress in governance over the past decade. These evaluations are deeply encouraging, but they do not distract us from the one essential objective: consolidation.

We must consolidate everything that is currently in motion—because all of it remains reversible. It is still fragile. It is still vulnerable. And that is precisely why we need the European Union—unconditionally, and at any cost.

We need to step through the door that has opened for us—not just as a real opportunity, but as a current and present one. It is a door opened with the premise that, by the end of 2027, we could complete the accession negotiations, based on mutual will. But it is also a door that can close if we are not swift and focused in making full use of the time available to us.

It can close—because the history of EU enlargement shows that such doors open, and they also close. Enlargement history tells us that the destinies of countries seeking to enter that door and those already behind it do not always align; interests do not always coincide. That is why we are deeply convinced that this commission—whose work will continue into the next legislature, let that be very clear—is crucial not only for enabling our entry through that door, but also for securing our place within it, as a country with a consolidated process that guarantees individual freedom and equality before the law.

There is no individual freedom and no equality before the law anywhere else, except within the system we have chosen—and for us, that means nowhere else but within the European Union.

And I believe we have shown—and continue to show every day—that we are highly ambitious. We are not satisfied with doing the minimum; we aim to do the maximum. Among the many examples I could mention, let me highlight the case of public procurement.

Albania has been rated the highest among all countries in the region—by a significant margin from the second place, to be exact—by SIGMA, for our performance in public procurement. Yet, we are not stopping there. We are currently working to develop a revolutionary AI-powered model for public procurement, in collaboration with Microsoft and Mira Murati’s team. We are making substantial progress, and we have well-founded confidence that by next year, we will have a system in place where 95% of the public procurement process will function without human involvement. In other words, we will have a tool that, thanks to AI, will effectively reduce corruption and the potential for manipulation in public procurement processes to near zero.

To go further, I want to recall that the creation of the special commission came as a result of a sense of alarm—an internal sense of urgency in the face of the immense scope of the negotiations and the extraordinary challenge of coordinating a vast number of institutions and resources in support of the accession process.

It is not the Government of Albania that negotiates with the EU. The EU is not looking to admit the Government of Albania as a member. It is the entire Albanian state that negotiates. A large number of independent institutions and agencies are involved in this process, and the need for this entire team to be coordinated is absolutely fundamental. Who? Where? Who can coordinate all these forces in order to achieve the desired outcome? No one but the Parliament of Albania—and nowhere else but within the Parliament—can such a space for national coordination be found, in pursuit of this long-awaited result for our nation, our people, and our country.

I believe that ensuring the irreversibility of justice reform is the challenge of all challenges—and I repeat, the moment we enter the EU, this is no longer an alarm. But until we are a member of the EU, it must remain a constant alarm.

For justice reform to be truly irreversible, the new justice institutions—which, like any others, can and should be improved—must be untouchable in terms of their existence. There must be no possibility for any political force, or any configuration of political forces, to threaten their dismantling or reversal. These things have happened before in Albania’s history—more than once—and there is no reason to believe they couldn’t happen again.

That is why this commission is so important. That is why irreversibility must be one of the key reference points in our process—alongside inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is, in fact, a major challenge in Albania.

I wish the Speaker of Parliament every success in her ambition to bring an end to political conflict—but that is an ambition that requires the capacity to rewrite history, and not on paper, but in the minds of people. That takes time. However, if political parties find it difficult to come together, institutions should not. Independent powers should not find it difficult to work together—and they should do so precisely in the name of their independence from one another, to contribute to a process of reform, of lawmaking, and of state-building, which is, ultimately, their shared mission.

Each within their own role—just as the independent experts, drawn from academia or everyday life, who in one way or another are connected to these issues, or the international experts, whom I thank for their work—all need a space for interaction.

This space for interaction cannot be one created by the government—but in Parliament, it is a completely different matter. Time has proven that the commission created a momentum of inclusive engagement that went far beyond the walls of institutions. It extended the debate wherever Parliament—as an institution with the proper legitimacy to undertake reforms—could mobilize other forces.

And none of the warnings that were initially raised came to pass. On the contrary, what we witnessed was that many activists who are openly and consistently critical of the government—experts, professors, individuals whose names I know precisely because of their vocal criticism—came together for this process. And this process has also been a form of self-transcendence, even for Parliament itself.

We must be honest with one another. The Parliament of Albania is not yet at the level it needs to be—nor where this process could and should take it, without question. Because the Parliament of Albania will, for a long time, play a dual role: the role of shaping domestic policy, and the role of coordinating and overseeing a process that extends well beyond the moment of membership itself.

Croatia has been a member of the European Union for many years, and it still maintains a structure within its Parliament dedicated to monitoring issues related to transparency and the rule of law—a structure it had in place even before becoming a member of the European Union. And from everything we have understood, it remains a necessary and effective structure, even today.

In conclusion, I want to say that we have no other choice—and, in truth, we want no other choice. We have only one option, only one plan, only one path: that of European Union membership. For us, this is very clear. We are not pampered Westerners born into fortune. We were not raised there, nor like those who grew up in the Europe of the 1970s and 1980s. We were raised in “hell,” and we know very well that the European Union is much more than just a cash machine. We know full well that the European Union is the place of our salvation—from our own history.

And we are very clear that the European Union is also the vantage point from which we must view our own history. We cannot look at the European Union through the lens of the past—we must look at the past through the lens of the European Union. And for us, this is crystal clear, which is why the door that has opened must be used—before it closes.

I am here to strongly reaffirm this, along with everyone else who unconditionally believes in this process. We know very well that the European Union is not a park one strolls into for pleasure. It is a family—not an easy one to be part of—but it is the only family in which we can be truly secure, and in which we can finally have a future not threatened daily by our past.

So, I’ll end from this podium with a little reminder, especially for your knowledge, Bjorn: since 1912, we Albanians have been independent—we declared independence and formed our first government in 1912. We were the last to separate from the Ottoman Empire, because, in general, we’re very loyal to empires. We only part ways with empires after the empires have already parted ways with themselves. In other words, when the Ottomans finally realized it wasn’t worth it anymore and let go—that’s when we stepped out. That’s how we’ve always been.

And it’ll be the same with the EU. If one day you all lose your minds and decide to destroy the European Union—we won’t leave it. We’ll set up the headquarters here in Albania. Brussels will be in Tirana. And whoever wants to stay with us, will stay. Whoever doesn’t, won’t. But we’ll be the last ones to leave—again.

From 1912 until just 3–4 years ago here in Albania, Bjorn, not a single independent investigation had ever been conducted against any individual holding political power. We’ve had ministers and members of parliament who were executed, hanged, or driven out of the country—not by independent courts, but by political will. Their fate was decided in the very office I now occupy. When I walked into that office, the sword—held by Lady Justice in that old statue you Norwegians know so well—was there, lying on the desk.

And that is exactly why, even after the fall of the communist regime, Albania still had political prisoners. The leader of the opposition—my predecessor in the Socialist Party—was jailed for political reasons, because decisions weren’t made by independent justice, but by the people who sat in that office before me, and before them. Today, that has changed. We have laid down the sword. Justice, through the new institutions, now has the power to summon whomever it wants, investigate whomever it wants, press charges against whomever it wants, and convict whomever it finds guilty.

On the contrary—though this is a difficult path, with its own challenges, shortcomings, and growing pains—it is the only path forward. There is no alternative. Any other path would be a step backward, a return to the past. That’s why we are fully committed to consolidating this process, and we are deeply determined to do so with your support and assistance.

And, by the way, I have to admit—I never expected the day would come when I would speak so positively about the Council of Europe. For years, I’ve seen the Council as something of a mausoleum of rights. But we are truly grateful for the expertise we’ve received from the Council of Europe in this commission process and I know Valentina won’t be jealous—because the EU gets our thanks morning, noon, and night.

Thank you all very much!