Albania’s ambition to join the European Union quickly could have significant side effects on governance and public trust. Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government and the Socialist Party are pushing for an unprecedented acceleration of the legislative process, with the aim of passing around 700 reforms in record time in order to meet the conditions of the accession negotiations.
Many observers and civil society representatives describe this rush as “wild”. The simplified procedure proposed by the government envisages a sort of automatic fast track that could bypass key tools of transparency and public participation. “The excuse is that other countries adopted similar procedures during the negotiation phases, but in each case there was a justification,” Klajdi Kaziu, researcher at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), told Focus Europe. “Here, no justification has been presented and citizens have no possibility to read draft laws before they are approved.”
Kaziu cited as an example the revision of the defamation law in journalism approved earlier this year, which decriminalised defamation only for registered journalists, under an ambiguous definition that excludes insults. “These superficial reforms risk weakening the regulatory framework and do not ensure real alignment with European standards,” he stressed.
According to IDM, a long-established Albanian think tank active on governance, the rule of law and European integration, the problem is structural: Albanian citizens place greater trust in international institutions – including the European Union – than in national institutions, because they feel they cannot control their own governments on their own. “It is a long-term problem: if reforms are imposed from above without a solid local foundation, you do not build a civic fabric capable of monitoring and consolidating those transformations,” Kaziu said.
The issue is particularly relevant to the rule of law, an area in which Albania has introduced significant reforms in recent years, especially in the judiciary and in the fight against corruption. However, Kaziu explains, the protection of these institutions remains fragile. “While SPAK – the Special Anti-Corruption Structure – is trying to prosecute high-level crimes, the government seems to be taking advantage of this by trying to dismantle the very structures that should guarantee transparency and legality.”
This refers to the lack of follow-up after SPAK’s vetting operation, the seven-year process assessing the professionalism, integrity and assets of members of the judiciary, which led to the removal of more than 260 judges and prosecutors from office. No remedy was put in place to address this drastic reduction in judicial staff, and today Albania has just over 9.8 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, about half the European average.
This dynamic raises crucial questions about the future of Albania’s European integration: moving too fast risks creating only the appearance of compliance with reforms, without building a genuine national system capable of sustaining them. According to IDM, the challenge will be to find a balance between the desire to close the negotiations by 2027 and the consolidation of participatory and transparent rules, without undermining citizens’ trust. “Today, institutions should invest in people more than in the single market,” Kaziu concluded.
The original article in Italian by our partner FocusEurope.it can be found here.
Caption: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama arrives for the Coalition of the Willing summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, 6 January 2026. EPA/YOAN VALAT / POOL
Updated: April 9, 2026 – 05:53