In how many years could Albania become a full member of the EU? 40 35 30 26.55 25.2 25 20 15 35.1 31.75 16.32 17.9 18.12 15.9 10 5 0 5 years 10 years 15 years 20 years 5.74 4.8 Never 1.52 1.2 Don't know 2019 2020 Graph 1: Expectation of the time needed for Albania to achieve EU membership. As the Albanian Security Barometer shows(see graph 1), over the last year there has been a slight increase of those who think that Albania is not going to be a full member by 2025, but by 2030 instead. The shifting of the timeframe from 5 years towards a 10- or 15-years perspective appears even more realistic when considering both the internal challenges that Albania must overcome to become a fully-fledged democracy and at the same time the multiple internal challenges that the EU is dealing with. However, the extended waiting time may exert a negative effect on the younger generations, who may become hopeless about EU membership and opt to leave the country for better life and work perspectives. When focusing on Albania’s internal challenges, the main obstacles refer to the so-called five priorities, namely completing the judiciary reform, fighting against corruption and organized crime, de-politicizing public administration, and last but not the least, ensuring protection and promotion of human rights. The country’s comprehensive justice reform is expected to mark a turning point in the achievement of sustainable results in the other above-listed priority areas. During the last five years, the justice reform implementation has continued consistently, and new judicial institutions have been established. 1F 2 It is expected that the new institutions will engage to establish a solid track record in investigating and prosecuting those involved in criminal activities. The last country report published by the European Commission in 2020 states that Albania has some level of preparation in the fight against corruption and organized crime, marking 2 European Commission,“Albania 2020 Report,” Commission Staff Working Document , SWD(2020) 353 final, Brussels, October 6, 2020. Accessible at: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/default/files/albania_report_2020.pdf 7