TIRANA, Oct 25 /ATA/ – “All Albanians have a common project. It is the merger with Europe,” the President of Republic Ilir Meta stated in a recent interview with Egyptian daily newspaper “Al-Ahram.”
Speaking about Europe and the European Union, President Meta noted “the EU now isn’t in its best condition. However, it is the best human enterprise, where economic progress parallels the human and civil rights progress. The EU condition will get better after the new reforms.”
President Meta is confident that the Western Balkans will join the EU someday and doesn’t see this cumbersome to the EU.
The Albanian head of state believes in regional peace and when asked him about his relations with Turkey and Greece, he said: “Albania’s relation with Greece is extremely important. We were and we will remain neighbours. Both of us are members in the NATO. There is a Greek minority in Albania and there is a great number of Albanians living in Greece. Our relation with Turkey is also historic. We have big economic interests and both of us are members in NATO. But I would like to mention clearly: It is important for Albania that the internal problems of other countries shouldn’t affect us here. It isn’t Albania’s duty to play the role of arbiter in conflicts and problems that take place in other countries.”
Asked about the Greater Albania idea, Meta said that “all Albanians have a common project. It is the merger with Europe. The idea of Greater Albania isn’t feasible at all. The “Greater Serbia” project failed. We are living in a complicated region. There is no ‘ethnically pure’ country in the Balkans. It is sheer madness to talk about expansionist projects.”
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