EU membership a 'life-changing experience' - Glenn Micallef

European Commissioner Glenn Micallef has described Malta joining the EU as a “life changing experience” in a speech to recent graduates at an EU-focused university campus in the Albanian capital Tiranë.

Speaking Monday night, Micallef said Malta’s accession to the union had been a “life-changing experience for me and for many generations of Maltese”, describing the country’s membership of the EU as a “success story”.

Calling EU enlargement the “most ambitious intergenerational project”, Micallef said intergenerational fairness – part of his commission portfolio alongside youth, culture and sport – “means the completion of our Union”.

“It means enlargement. And enlargement is not a pledge, not just a promise; it’s a clear path to the future full membership of our union,” he said.

Micallef was addressing the first cohort of graduates from the College of Europe campus in Tiranë, a postgraduate educational institution for European studies.

Albania applied to join the EU in 2009 and was awarded candidate status in 2014.

“Full union membership, being a European citizen, enjoying fully the freedoms of the internal market... all that affects greatly not one but many generations,” he said, calling EU enlargement a “transformative experience”.

Pointing to statistics indicating that two-thirds of the population in Malta were optimistic about the EU’s future, "and in no other EU member state are young people as optimistic... That fills me with great pride”, said Micallef.

“But it has also taught me one important lesson: When the wind blows against you, against your inner convictions, don’t give up your hope... For a future in the European Union.”

The fifth meeting of an accession conference between the EU and Albania was held around a month ago, with Albania having opened around three quarters of negotiating ‘chapters’ – each covering different policy areas – Micallef said.

“That is a great achievement. This is European history in the making”, he said.

Pointing to community, the arts and a “feeling of responsibility” as hallmarks of EU membership, Micallef told graduates they had a responsibility “not to remain silent” on “injustices”.

He pointed to Ukrainian citizens “whose life was interrupted because of the illegal war of aggression” and “children being starved to death, deprived of their childhood, blindfolded, taken prisoner in Gaza and the West Bank” as issues on which those present should be vocal.

“It is your responsibility to take action wherever it appears necessary. To challenge, to push boundaries... it is your responsibility, to stand up for our values when they are trampled on”, he said.

Quoting Irish singer and U2 frontman Bono, whom Micallef described as one of his favourite artists and a “great European”, he said: "Europe is a thought that needs to become a feeling."

During his visit, Micallef met with Albanian Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation Blendi Gonxhja and Minister of State for Youth and Children, Bora Muzhaqi and visited two EU-funded projects in the Albanian capital.