Exploring the “faces” of Europeanization from an Albanian perspective

Abstract

Europeanization is a process existent in all prospective members of the European Union (EU). One such country is Albania, which has been stagnating for long in its attempts to join the EU. This commentary explores Olsen’s faces of Europeanization by observing how this process has materialized in Albanian politics and governance. It also sheds light into Europeanization approaches by studying the EU candidate countries in the Balkans aiming to look for similar or distinguishable patterns in countries where Europeanization has taken place. The commentary contends that Europeanization in Albania is occurring according to some unique features, which are labelled as ‘Europeanization by convenience’.

From the German past to the European Union’s future. 'Constitutional Patriotism' and the transnational making of a European political concept (1988-2008)

“…Scicluna 2011). It will contest the view of a linear Europeanization of political concepts, defined as the progressive convergence around national pre-existing models (Börzel and Risse 2000;Radaelli 2004;Spahiu 2015). Rather, the career of constitutional patriotism will appear as a complex process of co-production in which a transnational thought collective (Fleck 1979) involving both scholars and politicians has played the main part (Vauchez and Mudge 2012).…”