TIRANA, June 25 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama said Saturday he was very happy Ukraine was granted the EU candidate status this week, yet he underlined that Ukrainians will have to face the reality Albania and North Macedonia are facing on the path towards their eventual membership with the bloc.
In the course of his visit to Austria, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was invited along with the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer to attend the Wachau European Forum with motto of this year’s event being “Safeguarding Europe’s future and EU Enlargement.”
In speech at this Forum, PM Rama said: “We are very happy that Ukraine was awarded the candidate status, but I very much hope that Ukrainians do not have illusions about what they were granted with. They were just given an anti-depressant pill that may boost their morale and the hormones for a while, but they would have to face the reality later, just like North Macedonia is now facing.”
“I hope that Ukrainians consider taking a look at North Macedonia that is a candidate country for over 17 years now. The candidate status has been invented precisely to make the aspiring countries feel being a candidate for something, but still waiting for 17 years just to talk. Imagine if Austria were to be forced to change its name just to be a EU member. Albania is a candidate country for eight years now. I hope Ukraine will not have to wait for 117 years,” he said.
“Of course, it is a long path along which you should deliver on reforms. Although Ukrainians are doing now something beyond reforming their country as they are preventing the advancement of the most frightening counter-reform of the world. This is the reason why Ukrainians fully deserve the status. And this is a reason why this is a miracle that the EU did,” PM Rama concluded.
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