"Albania and Kosovo united in EU"

"Tomorrow, we will be united in the EU".

Dream on Mr. Berisha, it will take ages before Albania will be allowed to enter the EU. It will take an even longer time for an independent Kosovo to become part of the EU. The EU only accepts states with relatively solid economies. Sorry to say this, but most people in Western Europe are not prepared to give up a bit of their wealth for Balkan states with defunct enonomies (we still are capitalists, you know). Of course this also applies to Serbia, but from what I read in Dutch and Belgian newspapers is that their economic prospects are somewhat better than Albania's prospects. But hey, mr. Berisha, although most do not come true, it is always good to have dreams.

What I'd like to know is how Kosovo will become an EU member if the EU does not even recognise its existence?

Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Azir: Nothing is inevitable except that people and nations act upon their interests.

Greater Albania will never happen because nobody in Europe or the U.S. thinks it's in their interests.

You probably noticed that NATO didn't come running when the Serbs cleaned your militia's clocks in Presevo.

Kosovo will only exist in a pseudo-quasi status and if Albanians don't behave themselves, it will all come to an abrupt end dpending on the whims of western politicians in Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin. Your efforts to create greater Albania or whatever you want to call it, is what everybody in Serbia is waiting for.

Let's get one thing absolutely clear: just because our governments saw fit to grant you a quasi-country, does not mean the rest of us ordinary people in the EU actually want Albania or Kosovo in the Union.

Marco Don’t you worry, we Albanians are aware for the state of our economy, FYI we have more than enough natural resources and Human capital to overcome economic problems much faster than you might think. You should worry to maintain the dams in the Atlantic Ocean to prevent leaking which might cause flooding to your beautiful country. Hey we are ready to provide warm shelter for you.

Marco as a capitalist i would think you would know the difference between nations that started taking the economy different, not like Albania that started the race as a new comer. Greece was already in debt with imf wile Albania still didn't get to start the race. We are a little bit late Marco, but whe have already shown much that we can maintain the challenge.
Listen Marco as for the dreams of my President, the dream started with Kosovo (Dardania) And now it will move to nato and Eu. You call them dreams we call them objectives. Wile you think the balkans is not a pretty place for your EU money to be spent we think that it will balance out the Balkans. I mean its ok for you, you had no 4 country's at the same time fighting a military war to tear apart your Netherland.

With comments like this coming out of the Albanian president I can't beleive that the western world don't realise that the old fascist dream of a greater albania is coming into fruition with their own help.
Although I beleive this will eventually come back to haunt them...

Dream on Albanians. The EU house is full and we don't want your likes in our backyard.Bad enough that we pay for the upkeep of the war
criminal Thaci and his henchmen.Join your brothes in
Macedonia,Montenegro and Albania and live happily as a
big family.

No my dear Albania Montenegro will not help nor recognize an illegal Albanian Independence. It would be political suicide for the Montenegro government.

Montenegro won their Independence by a very narrow referendum margin, half of Montenegro has very close religious and family ties with Serbia, besides these facts Montenegro needs Serbia for trade and tourism, they cannot afford Serbia to cut off trade with them.

And as for Macedonia, they may in fact recognize Illegal Independence and even trade with Kosovo but it won't last long, especially because Macedonia like Kosovo is dependant on Serbia for energy. Economically Macedonia is not much better than Kosovo so how are they going to help? The trade route they can offer will eventually be closed because of Serbian political pressure.

And finally my dear Muslim Albania don't count on becoming a EU member, ever! What makes you people think you can get in if Turkey cannot!?

The EU will not accept a Muslim country member I don't particularly agree with this especially because Turkey is more economical advance than half of the so called EU members!

Albania,... You are alone in your so called help of Kosovo, you and a few EU members. How much money are you prepared to give Kosovo in the coming years? Your economic situation is not so good either, and in fact you are just a little better off than Kosovo and equal to Macedonia.

'... I mean its ok for you, you had no 4 country's at the same time fighting a military war to tear apart your Netherland.
(Adriano, 16 February 2008 15:38)'

Because World War II was really just a series of minor border skirmishes, and there was no outright occupation, terrorism and some of the worst brutality in history on the part of the Nazis in the Netherlands, right?

PM Berisha is correct in wanting all Albanian states united in the EU. That's exactly what I have been aiming for.This is the century for a truly united Albanian democratic state of 7 milion living in peace and harmony on our ancestral lands.For those that feel insecure with our destiny, I suggest they get over it.Manifest destiny of the re-emergence of Illyria state is inevitable.Dardania, Arberia, and Illyria- it's all good.

Hello, if the EU wanted Kosovo to become a member, it would state so in the agreement it offered Serbia. This whole deal is partly a scheme to avoid Kosovo becoming part of EU by all means. The EU has made it quite clear LOL. If the Albanians weren't so drunken with the "glorious" victory, they'd see they are actually being cut off and put in a sort of reservation, following the US scenario (they have a lot of expirience with closing people in reservations LOL. Wake up already!!!

I hope my country, Netherlands, will NOT recognize Kosovo.

Sorry but we DID learn from Second World War: no change of borders again.

So Albanians in Serbia: get a life and learn to love your state (Serbia).

And Albania in the EU? Come on! You must be dreaming. We in the West are really sick of these Balkan games. We do not want new states, especially not in the EU!

Albania is the Third World of Europe. Joining EU? NO WAY!

Of course in the long run (20 years?) Albania and Serbia (including) Kosovo can join the EU!

I think he is being a bit optimistic. Both Kosovo and Albania are very poor and corrupt by EU standards.

Bulgaria and Romania got in way too soon, even Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia got in too soon, and here we are talking about the two poorest European countries other than Moldova?

Kosovo and Albania need to first develop their infrastructure and their economies before worrying about joining am economic bloc where most countries have 3-5 times more, even up to 10 times more income per capita.

But good luck nonetheless anyway to both states, one day they will get there, I'm sure.

Kosova is Independent; this has been the breaking news all around the world. It just happened and there's no turning back. The only lesson Serbia may learn out of all this is to see the reality straight, with her own eyes, european eyes, if they really are such.
As for the integreation of the region in EU, the only obstacle that i see ahead, is the ethnic tensions.

As for the economic prospect, assuming that we overcome nationalistic contrasts; there's simply no reason that the whole region is being held back and isolated.
The situation of the Balkan states, Albania, Kosova, Serbia, Croatia, FYROM, BiH, Montenegro, is simply a shame on the European Union. It is thus, the European Union that forllows an isolationist policy, discriminatory and racist. Here i may remind everybody, that the admission of countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal, was done simply without any requirement, with no ridiculous standards being put as conditions, like it is happening to the Balkan countries.
And to my dutch friend here, I have to remind that the EU Parliament, only for the seat in Strasbourgh spends, sorry, wastes, 4 billion Euros a year, because your representatives need saunas, swimming pools and tennis camps in every floor. I need to remind you that your dearest EU parliament has spent 13 years in arguind and debating projects and laws on very important fields of your(EU citizen) lives as to what height should the night robe be allowed, under or just over the knee height.
But how could you possibly know that? You were too busy collecting and packing tulips in the fields while cursing the Balkans with your friends while we experienced tragedies here. You mentioned the WW2, but you know nothing about it, because you had the war on TV from 91 - 99, and it seemed nothing to you.
ANd now you find the guts to lecture us on the values of EEC? You tell us your countries might but your citizens might not be interested and whatever... The balkans is a matter of humanity... you ignore it because you simply don't belong(guess where...).
Balkans are isolated, not integrated and will always have a hard time to integrate, because EU is hyper hypocrite, burocratic, racist and discriminating.

There is a very simple reason why the Albanians in the Balkans will not be united, Albania will stay as one country and Kosovo will remain a quasi state - The West won't allow it. The only reason why the West is concerned with Kosovo's independence is due to energy security, definitely not due to ethnic differences/humanitarian con siderations/"Serb oppression". The EU and USA are desperate to secure energy supplies, which Kosovo has plenty of. Macedonia has no decent supplies and neither does Montenegro, sothere is no chance that the Albanians in these countries or in Greece will be allowed to create a "Greater Albania". The US and EU have achieved their objective now. They won't allow more Albanian wars. If they try, in Macedonia for example, they'll be labelled as terrorists, not freedom fighters.

Albania, Kosova, Macedonia, Serbia and other Western Balkan states will join the EU by 2014. Now! Kosova today will ‘de jure’ achieve its statehood - one of the main tasks of the EULEX will be to prepare the nation for the EU.

No disrespect to other fellow EU citizens, but to be frank nobody asks common people in the EU as to who should join the Club and how the EU should conduct its foreign policy, for the simple reason- the majority are ‘ill informed, volatile, emotional, lacking coherence and structure, and with little if any influence on foreign affairs’. As a result they are simply ignored because they don’t see the 'bigger picture' in a globalised World.

Up until today, my constant message in this forum was ‘Kosova must be independent NOW’, thanks God this is over,-from now my message will be the Western Balkans in the EU NOW!

strange how all the eu citesens say kosovo or albania and the balkans are to poor to be integrated, id like to see any one of your countries go to london and make $$$$$$$, money is only made by feeding the poor, the balkan region is ripe for huge investments and bringing the area much needed investment in infrastructure education etc. and this is only thru debt guaranteed by these countries which u fellow eu benifit from and balkan people thru raising there quality of life (consumerisim), no matter what countriy any of you posters are from id like to see you pay for garments made in your own country, i guess life is not so tuff

Just to add:

In no way my posting was meant to insult Albania. But let's just be real: Albania is a very poor, corrupt country. Does Albania belong in Europe? YES! But will it happen soon? No...

In the meantime, let's work on a democratic Serbia. Including her province Kosovo!

Noël

Most of the Western Balkans is not ready for EU integration. There are certain levels those countries have to achieve, but as things stand now, they are very far away from this goal.

The enlargement ministers give these dates to the Western Balkan states because their economies are too weak to handle complete transition from centralized, developing economies to decentralized and developed economies. It has nothing to do with ethnicities or nationalism as your description of the majority of EU citizens seems to state.

It is called common sense and macroeconomics, I think you need to learn more about why just about all new EU states that joined in 2004 (aside from Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia and arguably Czech Republic) joined too soon altogether, not even mentioning Bulgaria and Romania, let alone the Western Balkans! The Western Balkans will join the EU, but the EU is reeling from the massive shock of having taken practically the whole of CEE, so all in good time, not now.

Marco as a capitalist i would think you would know the difference between nations that started taking the economy different, not like Albania that started the race as a new comer. Greece was already in debt with imf wile Albania still didn't get to start the race. We are a little bit late Marco, but whe have already shown much that we can maintain the challenge.
Listen Marco as for the dreams of my President, the dream started with Kosovo (Dardania) And now it will move to nato and Eu. You call them dreams we call them objectives. Wile you think the balkans is not a pretty place for your EU money to be spent we think that it will balance out the Balkans. I mean its ok for you, you had no 4 country's at the same time fighting a military war to tear apart your Netherland.

PM Berisha is correct in wanting all Albanian states united in the EU. That's exactly what I have been aiming for.This is the century for a truly united Albanian democratic state of 7 milion living in peace and harmony on our ancestral lands.For those that feel insecure with our destiny, I suggest they get over it.Manifest destiny of the re-emergence of Illyria state is inevitable.Dardania, Arberia, and Illyria- it's all good.

Marco Don’t you worry, we Albanians are aware for the state of our economy, FYI we have more than enough natural resources and Human capital to overcome economic problems much faster than you might think. You should worry to maintain the dams in the Atlantic Ocean to prevent leaking which might cause flooding to your beautiful country. Hey we are ready to provide warm shelter for you.

I hope my country, Netherlands, will NOT recognize Kosovo.

Sorry but we DID learn from Second World War: no change of borders again.

So Albanians in Serbia: get a life and learn to love your state (Serbia).

And Albania in the EU? Come on! You must be dreaming. We in the West are really sick of these Balkan games. We do not want new states, especially not in the EU!

Albania is the Third World of Europe. Joining EU? NO WAY!

Of course in the long run (20 years?) Albania and Serbia (including) Kosovo can join the EU!

Let's get one thing absolutely clear: just because our governments saw fit to grant you a quasi-country, does not mean the rest of us ordinary people in the EU actually want Albania or Kosovo in the Union.

'... I mean its ok for you, you had no 4 country's at the same time fighting a military war to tear apart your Netherland.
(Adriano, 16 February 2008 15:38)'

Because World War II was really just a series of minor border skirmishes, and there was no outright occupation, terrorism and some of the worst brutality in history on the part of the Nazis in the Netherlands, right?

With comments like this coming out of the Albanian president I can't beleive that the western world don't realise that the old fascist dream of a greater albania is coming into fruition with their own help.
Although I beleive this will eventually come back to haunt them...

Just to add:

In no way my posting was meant to insult Albania. But let's just be real: Albania is a very poor, corrupt country. Does Albania belong in Europe? YES! But will it happen soon? No...

In the meantime, let's work on a democratic Serbia. Including her province Kosovo!

"Tomorrow, we will be united in the EU".

Dream on Mr. Berisha, it will take ages before Albania will be allowed to enter the EU. It will take an even longer time for an independent Kosovo to become part of the EU. The EU only accepts states with relatively solid economies. Sorry to say this, but most people in Western Europe are not prepared to give up a bit of their wealth for Balkan states with defunct enonomies (we still are capitalists, you know). Of course this also applies to Serbia, but from what I read in Dutch and Belgian newspapers is that their economic prospects are somewhat better than Albania's prospects. But hey, mr. Berisha, although most do not come true, it is always good to have dreams.

What I'd like to know is how Kosovo will become an EU member if the EU does not even recognise its existence?

Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Azir: Nothing is inevitable except that people and nations act upon their interests.

Greater Albania will never happen because nobody in Europe or the U.S. thinks it's in their interests.

You probably noticed that NATO didn't come running when the Serbs cleaned your militia's clocks in Presevo.

Kosovo will only exist in a pseudo-quasi status and if Albanians don't behave themselves, it will all come to an abrupt end dpending on the whims of western politicians in Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin. Your efforts to create greater Albania or whatever you want to call it, is what everybody in Serbia is waiting for.

Hello, if the EU wanted Kosovo to become a member, it would state so in the agreement it offered Serbia. This whole deal is partly a scheme to avoid Kosovo becoming part of EU by all means. The EU has made it quite clear LOL. If the Albanians weren't so drunken with the "glorious" victory, they'd see they are actually being cut off and put in a sort of reservation, following the US scenario (they have a lot of expirience with closing people in reservations LOL. Wake up already!!!

I think he is being a bit optimistic. Both Kosovo and Albania are very poor and corrupt by EU standards.

Bulgaria and Romania got in way too soon, even Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia got in too soon, and here we are talking about the two poorest European countries other than Moldova?

Kosovo and Albania need to first develop their infrastructure and their economies before worrying about joining am economic bloc where most countries have 3-5 times more, even up to 10 times more income per capita.

But good luck nonetheless anyway to both states, one day they will get there, I'm sure.

Dream on Albanians. The EU house is full and we don't want your likes in our backyard.Bad enough that we pay for the upkeep of the war
criminal Thaci and his henchmen.Join your brothes in
Macedonia,Montenegro and Albania and live happily as a
big family.

No my dear Albania Montenegro will not help nor recognize an illegal Albanian Independence. It would be political suicide for the Montenegro government.

Montenegro won their Independence by a very narrow referendum margin, half of Montenegro has very close religious and family ties with Serbia, besides these facts Montenegro needs Serbia for trade and tourism, they cannot afford Serbia to cut off trade with them.

And as for Macedonia, they may in fact recognize Illegal Independence and even trade with Kosovo but it won't last long, especially because Macedonia like Kosovo is dependant on Serbia for energy. Economically Macedonia is not much better than Kosovo so how are they going to help? The trade route they can offer will eventually be closed because of Serbian political pressure.

And finally my dear Muslim Albania don't count on becoming a EU member, ever! What makes you people think you can get in if Turkey cannot!?

The EU will not accept a Muslim country member I don't particularly agree with this especially because Turkey is more economical advance than half of the so called EU members!

Albania,... You are alone in your so called help of Kosovo, you and a few EU members. How much money are you prepared to give Kosovo in the coming years? Your economic situation is not so good either, and in fact you are just a little better off than Kosovo and equal to Macedonia.

There is a very simple reason why the Albanians in the Balkans will not be united, Albania will stay as one country and Kosovo will remain a quasi state - The West won't allow it. The only reason why the West is concerned with Kosovo's independence is due to energy security, definitely not due to ethnic differences/humanitarian con siderations/"Serb oppression". The EU and USA are desperate to secure energy supplies, which Kosovo has plenty of. Macedonia has no decent supplies and neither does Montenegro, sothere is no chance that the Albanians in these countries or in Greece will be allowed to create a "Greater Albania". The US and EU have achieved their objective now. They won't allow more Albanian wars. If they try, in Macedonia for example, they'll be labelled as terrorists, not freedom fighters.

Albania, Kosova, Macedonia, Serbia and other Western Balkan states will join the EU by 2014. Now! Kosova today will ‘de jure’ achieve its statehood - one of the main tasks of the EULEX will be to prepare the nation for the EU.

No disrespect to other fellow EU citizens, but to be frank nobody asks common people in the EU as to who should join the Club and how the EU should conduct its foreign policy, for the simple reason- the majority are ‘ill informed, volatile, emotional, lacking coherence and structure, and with little if any influence on foreign affairs’. As a result they are simply ignored because they don’t see the 'bigger picture' in a globalised World.

Up until today, my constant message in this forum was ‘Kosova must be independent NOW’, thanks God this is over,-from now my message will be the Western Balkans in the EU NOW!

Noël

Most of the Western Balkans is not ready for EU integration. There are certain levels those countries have to achieve, but as things stand now, they are very far away from this goal.

The enlargement ministers give these dates to the Western Balkan states because their economies are too weak to handle complete transition from centralized, developing economies to decentralized and developed economies. It has nothing to do with ethnicities or nationalism as your description of the majority of EU citizens seems to state.

It is called common sense and macroeconomics, I think you need to learn more about why just about all new EU states that joined in 2004 (aside from Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia and arguably Czech Republic) joined too soon altogether, not even mentioning Bulgaria and Romania, let alone the Western Balkans! The Western Balkans will join the EU, but the EU is reeling from the massive shock of having taken practically the whole of CEE, so all in good time, not now.

Kosova is Independent; this has been the breaking news all around the world. It just happened and there's no turning back. The only lesson Serbia may learn out of all this is to see the reality straight, with her own eyes, european eyes, if they really are such.
As for the integreation of the region in EU, the only obstacle that i see ahead, is the ethnic tensions.

As for the economic prospect, assuming that we overcome nationalistic contrasts; there's simply no reason that the whole region is being held back and isolated.
The situation of the Balkan states, Albania, Kosova, Serbia, Croatia, FYROM, BiH, Montenegro, is simply a shame on the European Union. It is thus, the European Union that forllows an isolationist policy, discriminatory and racist. Here i may remind everybody, that the admission of countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal, was done simply without any requirement, with no ridiculous standards being put as conditions, like it is happening to the Balkan countries.
And to my dutch friend here, I have to remind that the EU Parliament, only for the seat in Strasbourgh spends, sorry, wastes, 4 billion Euros a year, because your representatives need saunas, swimming pools and tennis camps in every floor. I need to remind you that your dearest EU parliament has spent 13 years in arguind and debating projects and laws on very important fields of your(EU citizen) lives as to what height should the night robe be allowed, under or just over the knee height.
But how could you possibly know that? You were too busy collecting and packing tulips in the fields while cursing the Balkans with your friends while we experienced tragedies here. You mentioned the WW2, but you know nothing about it, because you had the war on TV from 91 - 99, and it seemed nothing to you.
ANd now you find the guts to lecture us on the values of EEC? You tell us your countries might but your citizens might not be interested and whatever... The balkans is a matter of humanity... you ignore it because you simply don't belong(guess where...).
Balkans are isolated, not integrated and will always have a hard time to integrate, because EU is hyper hypocrite, burocratic, racist and discriminating.

strange how all the eu citesens say kosovo or albania and the balkans are to poor to be integrated, id like to see any one of your countries go to london and make $$$$$$$, money is only made by feeding the poor, the balkan region is ripe for huge investments and bringing the area much needed investment in infrastructure education etc. and this is only thru debt guaranteed by these countries which u fellow eu benifit from and balkan people thru raising there quality of life (consumerisim), no matter what countriy any of you posters are from id like to see you pay for garments made in your own country, i guess life is not so tuff