{"id":21390,"date":"2021-09-29T21:04:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T19:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=21390"},"modified":"2021-09-29T22:10:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T20:10:25","slug":"andi-bushati-former-eastern-bloc-countries-still-incapable-of-democratic-systems-albania-is-the-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/andi-bushati-former-eastern-bloc-countries-still-incapable-of-democratic-systems-albania-is-the-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Andi Bushati: Former eastern bloc countries still incapable of democratic systems, Albania is the first"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to recent reports, the European Union cannot give accession guarantees to Western Balkans countries. Analyst Andi Bushati says it is not necessarily the bloc\u2019s fault, as these countries failed to \u201cestablish democratic systems\u201d.<\/p>\n

Andi Bushati said that Europe has already suffered from accepting countries like Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary into the bloc, and does not want any other \u201cilliberal democracies\u201d like the ones seen in the Balkans or Eastern Europe amid fears of their veto power.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first hand, it seems that we\u2019re in front of a xenophobic Europe which falls prey to its own nationalistic circles\u201d, said Bushati. \u201cIn essence, the problem is with former Eastern communist countries, which were unable to produce democratic systems\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlbania is the par excellence example of that\u201d, he added, arguing that the country went from \u201cBerisha authoritarianism\u201d to \u201cRama\u2019s combination of democracy and dictatorship\u201d, without ever producing a real democratic system.<\/p>\n

While according to analyst Baton Haxhiu, this means that the EU no longer favors the integration of the Western Balkans, adding that it resembled the bloc\u2019s stance on Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there is European xenophobia against Balkan states, it is not related to corruption or bad governance. These are the reasons that bring a xenophobic discourse against the people of the Balkans\u201d, said Haxhiu.<\/p>\n

But, apart from the government systems, Haxhiu also weighed in on the importance of religion in Europe.<\/p>\n

He said that many countries were ahead of Bulgaria or Romania, although they didn\u2019t receive similar treatment from Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither you need to have equal standards on integration, or you deny membership upfront. This form of rhetoric resembles more to EU\u2019s relations with Turkey, which it had promised integration, but then again, here we are\u201d, concluded Haxhiu.<\/p>\n

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE<\/strong><\/p>\n