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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Albania: One of the major European challengesIf the European bureaucrats in Brussels could make Albania disappear from the continents by magic, and place it somewhere in Africa or in Asia, they certainly would do it. It seems that at the end, which means 15-20 years from now, every willing European state will take part of the European Union except Albania. Including this country in the Union would mean lowering the conditions of membership in order to meet its unique social, economic and spiritual characteristics, far away not only from the Western frameworks, but also from those found in many surrounding Balkan countries. For if the Balkans are often suspected of Western mentality deficit, Albania is believed to lack it completely. If the small westernized cultural elite in the Balkans has been squeezed constantly between its universalism mission and the narrow ethnic local frames, in Albania westernized elite never existed. Talking about the EU failures in Albania, although in Brussels they prefer not to call their Albanian policy a failure, in the years following the fall of communism the Union was constantly on defensive. The European bureaucrats never took the political initiative to offer some realistic integration vision for this people. All their policy could have been reduced to the idea to keep the Albanians as far as possible from the Western Europe, directly by denying visa to its citizens, indirectly by putting economic sanctions on some of its neighbors. Conditioning the Albanian integration progress on the progress of its neighbors (so-called Western Balkans), EU left only one rational option for the Albanians, willing to live the European living standard - illegal immigration. Between half and one million have already left the country. Some of them, being illegal, have fallen easy prey to the international criminal circles, forced women and children prostitution, child labor, and drug trafficking. The European reaction was to slow down even further the Albanian integration process, discouraging even the slightest ideas of reforms in Tirana. This huge army of immigrants and its remittances are the main source of income for large parts of the Albanian population. These up to $1 billion sent home each year keep alive the domestic economy and at relatively high level the real estate prices in Tirana ($500-700/sqm). To deport home this army will mean to deal a major financial blow on the poor country. It seems that Albania didn't take opportunity from the fact that neighboring Greece would host the Olympic games this summer. The other Greek neighbors have made their preparations and are now waiting for thousands of extra tourists this season to fill their coffers. Other open wound of Albania is that it can't fulfill even its obligations under some major international infrastructure projects. If the opposite was true, then the Albanian ports already had to be among the major transition trade points between Europe and Central Asia. The European bureaucrats in Brussels seem to be willing to pass the Albanian case to their successors. Against any rational logic they believe that the Albanian problems will disappear by magic. Perhaps they assume that the Central and Eastern Europe, especially some of the Albanian Balkan neighbors, will be rich enough 20 years from now to take away at least a part of the Albanians leaving their country. If the later is what they really believe in, they may be very disappointed.
Albania profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Albania.
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