We’ve had a couple of debates on EU enlargement recently here on Debating Europe, including discussing relations with Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia and Macedonia. One country we haven’t focused on yet, however, is Albania; the small Western Balkan nation applied for EU membership back in April 2009, and the European Parliament has just adopted a resolution calling on EU Member States to accept the country’s application and formally recognise Albania as a candidate country.

We recently spoke to Albania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati, and put some of your questions to him to answer. We started with a question sent in from Mihail through our “Suggest a Debate” form, asking simply: “When will Albania join the EU?”

Next, we took a question from Paul, who wanted to know exactly how it benefits existing EU Member States to have new countries like Albania join the EU:

What’s in it for me? What is the benefit to me, a tax-paying EU citizen (by default) by allowing [new countries] to join?

Minister Bushati argued that Albanian membership would bring stability and prosperity to Europe, as well as greater credibility for the EU in the interntational arena:

Finally, we had a comment sent in from Nikolai, who wanted to know what the Western Balkan nations thought the future direction of the EU should be. Were they worried that the process of European integration might accelerate and transform the nature of the EU before they joined? Would Albania be able to influence this process from outside the EU before it gains entry?

IMAGE CREDITS: CC / Wikipedia – Memi Sahitolli