Performing Europe: Speech Acts and the Discursive Construction of European Integration in Albanian Political Discourse
Performing Europe: Speech Acts and the Discursive Construction of European Integration in Albanian Political Discourse

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines how Albanian political leaders discursively construct European integration as a process of identity formation, legitimacy, and political belonging. Since the early 2000s, Albania’s aspiration to join the European Union (EU) has functioned not only as a policy objective but also as a central element of national self-representation. At the highest levels of state authority, discourse on European integration performs a symbolic reorientation from historically grounded political identities toward a contemporary European normative framework. Drawing on Speech Act Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines an extensive corpus of public speeches delivered by Prime Minister Edi Rama from September 2013 to the present, with particular emphasis on the period 2019–2025. The corpus is supplemented by selected speeches by senior ministers directly involved in the European integration process: Olta Xhaçka, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (January 2021–September 2023); Igli Hasani, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (September 2023–September 2025); and Taulant Balla, Minister of Internal Affairs (July 2023–July 2024). Adopting a diachronic, identity-oriented perspective, the analysis investigates how illocutionary acts function as discursive resources in the evolving construction of Albania’s European identity over time. The findings identify four interrelated performative functions—commitment, legitimation, mobilization, and identification—realized through commissive, assertive, directive, expressive, and declarative acts. These speech acts not only articulate policy positions but also enact Europe as a cultural, moral, and political point of belonging. While performative discourse sustains institutional credibility and collective belief in the European project, its success ultimately depends on material reform and political delivery. The study demonstrates that Albania’s European integration is simultaneously a political process and a discursive performance of identity, highlighting the constitutive role of elite political language in contexts of EU enlargement.

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