The Italy-Albania migration pact serves as a political precedent for EU externalizing border control, raising concerns over sovereignty and democratic erosion in Albania.
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The Rama-Meloni agreement, which involves transferring parts of migrant detention and repatriation procedures to Albania, is presented as more than a simple bilateral deal; it serves as a political and legal precedent for how Europe might externalize migration control. While Albania progresses with its EU accession negotiations, this arrangement places the country in a paradoxical position: it is simultaneously expected to reform according to EU standards while also becoming a testing ground for European migration management outside of direct EU jurisdiction. Critics argue that this “Albanian model” represents a neocolonial logic, where Albanian territory is used as an extension of Italian and European borders, allowing costs to be passed on without full rights or local control. Furthermore, the agreement’s focus on migration overshadows broader concerns in Albania regarding sovereignty cession, environmental protection, and democratic governance, suggesting that issues of environment, democracy, migration, and sovereignty are converging in a critique of the current development model.
