That would be that Greater Albania they’ve been talking about
Well this is interesting:
Kosovo and Albania said they will soon sign an agreement creating a ‘mini-Schengen’ zone allowing free movement across their borders, a deal that could lead to a wider no-border zone in the region…
With signature planned withing two months, the two leaders said the agreement would be then sent to other states in the Balkans as an example of trade liberalisation and integration on the way to the European Union.
“This mini- Schengen of South East Europe would be followed by Montenegro and Macedonia,” Sejdiu said.
Of course, the first comments to go up on this news follows the well-worn paths of Balkan paranoia – specifically, the spectre of Greater Albania. It’s true that the countries mentioned in the scheme are those with Albanian populations, and that this scheme is likely to benefit those populations more than anybody else.1 It’s also true that the obvious next step would be – as this article points out – “a unified economic and external policy between the four, following the model of the Benelux countries.” Greater Albania, here we come!
Except of course, we don’t. Freedom of movement doesn’t create a Greater Albania, and neither does an economic area2 – unless you think that Albanians will outperform everybody else economically in that area3 but it does offer a way of stimulating economic activity across the region, which I would have thought would be something to welcome in these recessionary times. The only problem here would probably be Kosovo, whose economy is unlikely to take off any time soon and might drag the others down with it.
So why stop with those four countries? Invite everybody to the party! We could call it Not-Yugoslavia.
January 13, 2009