While Macedonia has spent years in the EU waiting room, neighboring Albania is taking a step that hurts to watch from outside - on July 14, in Brussels, it officially closes its first three chapters of the membership negotiations.

These are chapters 25 (Science and Research), 26 (Education and Culture) and 30 (External Relations), whose provisional closure was approved by the EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives. Prime Minister Edi Rama called it a moment that „officially marks the start of the negotiations".

Rama didn't miss the chance to hit back at his critics at home: „They said the negotiations were blocked... our word is work", while his opponents, as he put it, rely on „empty words". By his figures, Albania opened as many as 28 chapters in 11 months - a pace he calls an „absolute record".

For us, this is heavier news than it looks. Macedonia has waited for the EU longer than Albania, went through renaming the country, disputes with neighbors and countless promises that „next year we begin". And now we watch a country that set off later overtake us and already close chapters, while we're still arguing over constitutional amendments and vetoes.

The question isn't why it works for Albania - it's why it doesn't work for us. Is the problem only the neighbors who block us, or also the five or six years we lose at home on internal score-settling instead of reforms? The Albanian example isn't a reason for envy but a mirror worth looking into - what are they doing differently that we still refuse to learn?