TIRANA, May 6 /ATA/-By Maela Marini/ – “It is very clear that for us Europe is not an alternative to anything, but Europe for us is a religion and it is our only and ultimate choice,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said Thursday in his remarks at the State of the Union (SOU), an annual high-level forum on the European Union hosted by the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy.
“It is absolutely true that it doesn’t matter who wins or loses the elections when it comes to the EU integration, because Albania has an incredibly pro-EU and pro-Western public opinion. There is no doubt that EU integration is for us not an alternative, but it is our only and ultimate alternative. It is true for other countries in the region that there are other quite influential factors and actors, but this is not true for Albania, because though we have different kind of relations with other countries, but none of them is a potential substitute of the European Union as our national goal, as our destination and our partner. Therefore, yes, I think there are many issues that we have to deal with in this period of time,” Rama said.
“I think there is none, nowhere in Europe a better place than the European Commission to asses objectively, based on facts and based on a very strict and systematic monitoring of the entire process where we stand. We have learned in the hard way that, no matter what, there are always two levels of assessment, one is a more technical level from the Commission, which has a whole Delegation to Albania following up 24/7 all the events and the progress, and then there is another level, which is more political and a more subjective one. We stumble there,” Rama said.
The Premier noted “it is important for Albania to keep doing what we are actually doing, because it is not that we have to do it based on what people in Brussels, Berlin and Paris ask us to do, but we have to do it for our children and our future.”
“These reforms are beneficial for the country and they are the reforms we need to deliver for the next generations and we are doing so. But then we also have to be patient and we have learned it, and we are really very patient, until the assessment is also made at the political decision-making level at the Council, because we are pretty aware that different dynamics in different countries are increasingly influential on this decision. And it is not necessarily about what you do, which is definitely important, but it is also very important what these countries need at that moment. So, we have faced it several times and now nothing surprises me, as we can do everything needed and we can still be in limbo. We know it is important we keep doing our job and we know that beyond that we don’t have much power to change things. So, if one country has to hold elections in six months, another country might have to deal with an internal political debate on emigrants, another country needs to issue a statement about the EU enlargement and therefore having everyone in full consensus about the next step for us or other candidate countries is increasingly difficult,” he added.
Rama: Europe is for us a religion, a place having same values it actually had when imagined by its founding fathers
PM Rama was asked about relations with Turkey and the regional cooperation.
Rama tha se “sometimes one has to struggle to make it clear, because there are various opinions coming from outside as to the way we approach to Europe.”
“Europe for us is not an alternative to anything, Europe for us is a religion, the place that has the very same value today it had when the founding fathers imagined it. We are probably a bit naive, we are may be like everyone before marriage, who are really enthusiastic about it and who don’t wish to know about the marriage alternative experiences, but this is it. We don’t see any other factor or actor as an alternative to Europe. For us, the integration process is a fantastic tool to modernize our country and make Albania a full-fledged European state, ready to become an EU member,” Rama said.
“I strongly believe and this is the humble view of the Prime Minister of a small country like Albania, but it is my strong view that Europe needs us – not only Albania, but whole Western Balkans – as much as the Western Balkans needs the European Union. And this is exactly for the same purposes that some players or some actors advocate the contrary; for the purpose of a more secure, safer and a more integer Union. It is absolutely not clear to me how it can be a discussion about that. We are surrounded by the EU borders. We are within Europe. How one can afford having this neighbourhood not fully integrated and leaving it as a possible grey zone where other interests and other actors can interfere. It is quite obvious that the option of full integration is much more feasible and safer than the option of whatever collaboration by leaving space for others,” Rama added.
Open and inclusive dialogue needed when it comes to Western Balkan conflicts
Rama also said “politics is a lot about semantics.”
“It might sound not right when some EU member countries discuss future of Europe, not the future of European Union, but the future of Europe, while totally dismissing a whole part of Europe, which is the Western Balkans.”
“And I would say that productive discussions on the future of Europe, again not the European Union because if they discuss the future of the European Union it is up to them to open or not open to others, but when it comes to the future of Europe, productive discussions would absolutely imply inclusion, not only of Western Balkan countries, but also Turkey, to just have an open discussion that would of course lead to conclusions that the European Union will then take stock of, the others would also take stock of them and take things to a whole different level,” Rama stated.
I think – he went on saying – “there is a lot of need for open dialogue, an open and inclusive debate even when it comes to the Western Balkan conflicts, without opening up the debate and without including in a very opened and blunt way all the actors, then the risk is to stumble and at the end always we would prefer the status quo instead of going for a change.”
“So, there is absolutely a need to have an inclusiveness and a need to have everyone feel on board, regardless of being or not being fully OK with the final assumptions,” Rama said.
Albania not ready to become EU member, but start of real work on accession negotiations can no longer be delayed
“Taking notice of what we are experiencing in terms of EU accession, there is a fresh joke about Euro-pessimism and Euro-optimism in Albania. The Euro-optimists now say Turkey would become an EU member under the Albanian Presidency, whilst the Euro-pessimistic say Albania will become a member under the Turkish Presidency,” Rama said.
“I think joining the EU is a big word and, frankly, if you would ask me today: Is Albania ready to become an EU member, I would reply: No, we are not ready to become members of the European Union. But, what I don’t understand is the constant postponement of starting real work on the negotiations, given that the decision to open the accession talks has been made in 2018, because this is the real work the country needs,” he said.
“When it comes to accept or not a new member, first, this would need time, second, our European friends can rely to the Turkish model and can say ‘no, wait because we are not ready’. But keeping the countries, Albania in this case, in such position, and telling them ‘no’, and we know very well why it is a ‘no’, this is because certain countries face some other problems, and they add to the pie ‘you have to do this, you have to do that’, but this doesn’t really make much sense and it looks quite schizophrenic I would say. Now, with this North Macedonia thing and the Pandora box of history being opened and hurting the relations of a country with the EU just because another country has some historic problems to solve, this can become a big blow up for everyone. Just imagine when Serbia will be there and Croatia would say: ‘Let’s see a bit history, because there is something we need to sort out first’, or when Albania, Kosovo or Serbia join. So, we should avoid putting history in the middle of the European integration process,” Rama said.
Asked about the purchase of Chinese coronavirus vaccines and the ties with China, PM Rama noted “we were initially left out of the COVID-19 vaccines distribution scheme and by ‘we’ I mean not only Albania, but all Western Balkan countries.”
“So this neighbourhood right at the heart of Europe, surrounded by the EU borders was practically isolated from the rest in terms of the capacities to fight the pandemic. Therefore, we had to make our own run and make our own individual efforts and for us it went well. We secured a direct contract with Pfizer and AstraZeneca. To be more accurate, we didn’t get the vaccine from China, but we got Sinovac vaccine from the distributor in Turkey,” Rama noted.
“I would say that our relations with China are absolutely normal and normal means there is nothing special in this relation,” he concluded.
/r.e/u.sh/
