Discourse on Europe and the European Identity of Albanians

Political discourse on Europe and EU integration in the Albanian social and political reality has played an important role in all its continuity and evolution from the 1990s until today. It has been used by various political actors as one of the main instruments aimed at informing, propagating and communicating with the broad masses of the electorate and citizens. Discourse on Europe is also discourse as a form of thinking about identity, because all the values, beliefs and ideas it adheres to also determine how Albanian citizens see themselves in relation to the past, the present and the design of their future. The idea of Europe and the European identity of Albanians is not late among Albanians, which is articulated only from the 1990s onwards. On the contrary, the most common point of view considers the Albanian people with an early inherited European identity and also related with the geographical determination, which was lost as a result of historical fates and finally in an attempt to regain it. All this contributes to the further consolidation of an ideology of "deserved" integration in Europe, part of which we have been and must necessarily be. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the Albanian political discourse focused on Europe as an idea and the attempt to transform the discourse for Europe, in an ideological hegemonic discourse. It aims to discuss whether Europe and EU integration has become the main hallmark of Albanian political discourse given the importance it takes in explaining, defining and justifying issues, actions and events in general.