11
Jul
2023
Watch
2022 Report on Albania (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, this report on Albania is clearly inconsistent. The country is therefore knocking on the door of the European Union against ringing and stumbling species, with EUR 758 million allocated to it between 2014 and 2020 under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance alone. Yet between 2010 and 2019, more than 193,000 Albanians applied for asylum in the EU on grounds that were particularly cold in the back – from vendettas to human trafficking – in order to be considered refugees. Last year, the same Albanians increased the ranks of makeshift boats crossing the Channel before Rishi Sunak put it in order. Is this the level of a future Member State? I would add that, with a minimum wage of around EUR 360, Albania represents fierce competition, for example in the clothing sector, at a time when the Commission claims to have a sustainability strategy for this sector and local production is being shyly reborn from the ashes in my region of Lorraine, France. I am therefore fiercely opposed to any enlargement that would be an economic and civilizational aberration.