Three decades ago, Albania threw off the shackles of one of the most closed Stalinist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. While the communist dictatorship was crumbling, the dramatic footage of 1991 demonstrations showed thousands of people gathering in the streets of Tirana chanting for Albania to become “like the rest of Europe.” Craving freedom and economic opportunity, membership of the European Union became the rallying cry of a nation isolated for half a century from the western world. Political discourse and public policy in Albania came to be framed around its EU accession bid. The country was officially identified as a potential membership candidate at the Thessaloniki summit in June 2003 which marked its EU integration journey. During the 2000s there was slow but tangible progress. Albania signed the EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement in 2006, officially submitted its application for membership in 2009 and was granted candidate status in 2014. Since then, the
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