TIRANA, June 20 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama told an interview with France 24 TV channel that Albania has been at the top of European countries for mass vaccination against COVID-19 and speeding up the ongoing mass inoculation drive across the country.
PM Rama was first asked about management of the COVID-19 crisis and decision to lift restrictions for Albania.
“Our citizens expect to travel a lot. Moreover, as you already said, a significant part of our population lives outside Albania’s borders and this has been very important news to us, as we have made serious efforts to fight the pandemic with results widely recognized by everyone. Albania has been in the lead in terms of vaccination percentage, infection and COVID-related fatality rate,” Rama said.
“The vaccination campaign in your country is not a mass one, as 50% percent of the vaccinated people have received both doses. Which are the vaccines you are using in Albania and do you think Europe has been in solidarity with you in terms of the vaccines,” the France 24 reporters asked PM Rama.
“By mass vaccination and the pace of vaccination, I mean the EU data, according to which Albania has been at the top for months; Albania has vaccinated over 850,000 people until yesterday and the figure is quite significant in terms of the current population share. As for Europe, I would first say it was unfortunate because all the Balkan countries were left out of the vaccines delivery schemes, and in fact, we were not alone, but in a rather aggravated psychological state, because we live with Europe.
“We in the Balkans are in the middle of Europe and we are bordered with EU countries and watching the TV news stories showing that European countries had started vaccinating, this was really tough,” PM Rama said.
He said “I have personally received Pfizer vaccine, but we in Albania are administering the four coronavirus vaccines, namely Pffizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sputnik.”
Commenting on Albania’s reopening for tourists and the concern over a potential new wave of infections in the country, Rama underlined: “We have been successful in containing infections and the statistics show that Albania, along with Iceland, is practically ranked at Level 1, indicating a low level of COVID-19 in the country.”
“For months now, people can enter and depart from Albania without having to undergo test and without having to wear face masks, which are no longer mandatory, except when in indoor spaces,” he said.
Focusing on issue of opening membership talks, the journalist stressed that “it is true that there was a blockade by France, but it has been lifted. The Dutch Parliament approved the Brussels assessment on your country regarding the opening of negotiations. Do you hope this will be achieved at the next summit, on June 24 and 25?”
“It is worth underlining that the pre-pandemic summit decided to open the accession negotiations, but the process was delayed as a decision had to be made on calling the First Intergovernmental Conference. Unfortunately, I am now used to no longer be surprised at what may happen in Brussels, because it is a matter of internal dynamics, a story about consensus that is sometimes difficult to be reached. However, we should normally receive the green light keeping in mind the fact that there is another problem between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, as we both expect a decision to be made and it has yet to be seen whether this issue will be addressed ahead of the summit,” Rama said.
Commenting on the allegations over the personal data breach ahead of the April 25 parliamentary elections, the government head stated “the OSCE/ODIHR reports on the elections have been pretty clear regarding the campaign’s integrity, the elections integrity, yet a lot remain to be improved.”
The interview went on about the justice system reform in Albania, with the French journalist underlining that “the EU sees the fight against corruption as one of the main preconditions for Albania’s membership and this sector concerns the justice system itself. A former chief prosecutor Adriatik Llalla has been sentenced to two years in prison under corruption charges. If judges are corrupt, then are judges with integrity being sought in Albania?
“Should Albania were not to face problems both at government and the judiciary level, then Albania would have been a EU member by now. There is a reason why we are fair in this battle to reform the justice system, and I believe it is quite the opposite. For the first time in recent years, impunity has given way to the rule of law, and if there is a general prosecutor or former personalities in both the judiciary and the political system in general who are convicted, then this is a very significant sign, showing the birth of something that is very important, the rule of law. That is precisely why we want to continue the negotiation process because it allows us to build a rule of law, a functioning democracy, and if all these were not part of our journey, then the European Council would definitely never consider even merely a meeting just to mark the start of the accession talks,” Rama stated.
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