The latest incidents have put question marks (maybe rightfully so!) on the existence and cohesion of the Washington-Berlin axis over Albania. It’s important to start with a quick answer to all the skeptics that this axis not only is not dependant on what happens in the country and, of course, considering what happens in Albania the axis is clear about his acts and engagement in case of the country’s sliding towards instability.

Given that, now it’s the time to see the arguments why the axis is steady and persistent in Albania’s case and is not depended at all on the obstacles or delays of the processes, be it the judiciary reform or the integrity and Euro-Atlantic ones.

First, the stability in the region, especially in the Western Balkans, is of the utmost importance to the Washington-Berlin axis. For both US and EU it is important the region countries reach a possible stability before or contemporaneously with their engagement in the Europeanization processes. The integration of the WB in EU is seen always as an “Achilles heel” to prevent the outside interventions, especially from Russia, in the chaotic region with many old disputes. From the other hand, the stability reached by the NATO membership of a few of these countries has been an incentive to go further with the integration process and homework imposed by Brussels.

So, the parallelism and walking side by side through the EU integration process and NATO engagement has been for two decades the point of balance that has united the European allies with Washington to face the challenges of the new millennium.

Second, it must be understood and accepted that sometimes the integration and stabilization or security processes that are related to NATO not always have gone ahead parallelly or in the same wavelength. This depends more on the progress and development of the Balkan countries rather than on Brussels or Washington. Certain countries have made better progress concerning stability and security matters, becoming earlier NATO members, when some others have done less or nothing to achieve their integration goals in the path towards EU. However, this can be explained quite well with stagnation the European Union has been experiencing in the recent years. The diagnosis can be found also in the internal brawls between Euroskeptics and the Unionists (in Brussels) which now have gone beond the EU borders and have affected the candidate countries. Also, the economic crisis of the last decade and Brexit have brought such a mess that would confuse even the founding fathers of EU.

In this plan, the direct doses of Berlin’s influence on the Western Balkan countries were felt ever since the creation of the so-called the Process of Berlin, whose godmother was German Chancellor Angela Merkel in person. The process is nothing else but a re-organization of the membership form in a new content. Thus, the candidate countries from the Western Balkans, in the conditions of a growth in the Euroskeptic forces in Brussels and of a 5-year suspension of the expansion, declared by Jean Claude Juncker, formalized a process that is seen as the way to keep alive their integration dialogue process.

Considering that some of these countries now are NATO members, the prevalence of the EU integration process obtained a vital importance making their stability completely equal in values with achieving the standards of liberal democracies and Western developed societies. For this reason, this prevalence made the Brussels’ role, and Germany’s as an EU leader member too, become bigger in the political lives of these countries.

Several analysts and pundits have seen this as sidelining Washington and a replacement of the US with Germany and France. As a matter of fact, it’s not like that.

Considering that we, Albanians, never see our political lives as independent from the international factors, we try to see the global developments through our glasses and vice versa, to put subjectivism doses of international factor on our domestic events. Normally that the internationals: the ambassadors and Brussels’ delegates have danced to their tunes and that has made that the Albanian way of watching and understanding the developments remains still alive today.

Third, in front of the big problems that have appeared in the last decade, which have to do with an increase of Russian influence in the region, also with other non-Balkanic factors, the Washington-Brussels and Washington-Berlin axes, despite some recent disagreements, have functioned and reacted quickly and with efficacy. The disagreements never passed the internal border and exported to the other allies or to the Western Balkan countries.

The fact the US has requested a greater engagement of EU and especially of Germany and France in the Balkans to accelerate the integration process shows that the credibility among them remains in transparent and not preferential levels. At the same time, the United States, despite voices within the administration in Washington, visibly preferred not to be a part of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, leaving the “burden” to EU, so that not to give a reason to Russia to interfere in the Belgrade’s favor.

Often Washington’s diplomatic choices look like skew acts but actually since it’s decide to build a NATO air forces base in Albania, the US officials are careful that their political acts not to interfere with those of EU. This happens because the total of all these actions is nothing more and nothing less than an extension of a careful US policy in the region.

The voices that Berlin is supporting the opposition whereas Washington prefers to keep the stability, seen from afar, maybe are reasonable, but after all both stability and democracy are sides of the same coin. This coin right now is more in Brussels’ hand than in Washington’s, waiting for the integration of these countries in EU to complete the stability-democracy binomial of the regional countries. For Berlin, now that Albania is already a NATO member, it’s important to have a functional democracy and uncontestable elections. For this reason, the elections without the opposition would be a kick to all EU efforts and engagements in the region in the last decades. That’s why it’s easily understandable why Merkel insist that the parties in Tirana dialogue to find a way to solve the political crisis.

The framework would remain incomplete if Brussels would not manage to integrate the Western Balkan countries in the system of the democratic values, similarly to what the US did with the membership of several countries in NATO.

For anyone that has a little understanding of the global politics it’s easy to understand how hard this is not only for Germany but for any other European country to cross the United States when it is determined to do something. But this is not the case of a conflict between the two countries for “influence” in Albania, it’s more of a mere spread of homework when Brussels (also read Berlin) must demonstrate it cannot leave these countries in the mercy of fate or authoritarian leaders.

Had this really been the case, it would have been easier for Washington to reach an accord with Russia not to interfere in the region rather than leaving to EU the unwinding of the ball that would be created. For this not to happen, it’s a must for the EU to engage more and more realistically in the region and to ensure an actual tangible democracy, because for the stability issues Washington has taken care of since very long.