TIRANA, Aug 29 /ATA/ – Prime Minister underlined Monday that Albania is fully aligned with the European Union’s foreign policy since day one and we will continue to be aligned regarding the sanctions imposed on Russia following the unprovoked aggression on Ukraine in February this year.
Asked about sanctions on Russia as he attended the 17th Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, PM Rama affirmed “Albania is aligned with the EU foreign policy and we will continue to be aligned.”
“We are usually very loyal to the empires. We were the last to leave the Ottoman Empire; even after the Ottomans themselves abandoned it. We were the last to leave the Stalinist empire after the Soviets had abandoned it 30 years earlier and we will definitely be the last ones to leave the Western empire,” he said.
Asked how he would explain such a loyalty, PM Rama said: “Because we are good people and because in our code or in the earliest constitutions of the Albanians, the given word is equal to the honour. So, if you don’t honour your promise or your given word, you don’t have an honour anymore. We have given this word to the European Union and to the United States, which in turn have already given us so many words that they sometimes keep them and sometimes they don’t. However, they have a different sense of honour, since we are “too primitive” in that.”
“First of all, Albania is unique in this respect too. . We don’t have gas. We don’t need the Russian gas. That’s why we can go very tough on Russia, because we simply don’t need their gas. Our history was as such that we don’t have any kind of feeling about Russia anymore. This is because, in the Soviet empire, Stalin’s monument was torn down or let’s say graciously taken out in the sixties, but we had Stalin’s monument even after the Berlin Wall fell. And we are 100% renewable, by the way. I mean, our electricity generation is almost 100% hydro-based, which is a very good thing indeed, when God certainly is in good mood and he cries, but which is terrible when God is laughing all the time, because dry seasons means electricity imports and imports mean that we are affected by the energy market prices. However, we have made a decision, I think a brave one, but time will show whether it was bravery or a stupidity, not to alter the electricity price for the households and the small business consumers. We are fully covering the gap, which is certainly quite painful for the Albanian state budget, but we are still committed to maintaining this trend. On the other hand, by not having increased the electricity price by a single dime, we have succeeded in maintaining the lowest inflation in the region to date,” the government head noted.
“. It sounds great, when you consider it technically, but of course it is not good when you see it in the Albanian way , because it should be always better and there is no doubt about that. The problem I see is how much –because it is not about… you mentioned Scholz, but I was not talking about Chancellor Scholz, when I referred to Germany , because Scholz is the leader and in terms of the leadership in the European Union the response has been very clear, very strong, very tough. I am talking about the public. Because the difference between Scholz and Putin is that the public cannot oust Putin, but the public can definitely oust Shchoz.
So democracies, the coalition of democracies fighting an autocracy, where there is no room even to transmit a truthful information, while here the Russian propaganda, despite some measures already in place, can flow all the way and the debate between different parties whether to send weapons or not has started, but it makes it quite a vulnerable situation,” he added
“When the big crisis hit, the ones in the biggest trouble are the rich and not the poor ones. This is because the poor have a much stronger sense of resilience. I see the Balkans being completely fair and loyal and standing behind Ukraine all the way,” he stated.
“What I am actually trying to say is that our state budget is modest and the fact that Albania is not an EU member, we cannot claim what actually the Slovenian Prime Minister said. He stated that the European Union or the European Commission should cover for that. We can’t ask for that. I simply hope the European Union is not going to make the shameful mistake it did during the pandemic, when the bloc thought just about ways how to distribute vaccines among themselves, forgetting completely about us. And one shouldn’t forget that we lie right at the heart of Europe, geographically, although we are not yet part of the EU. So, we are E although we are not yet U. We are surrounded by the EU borders and EU, in my knowledge – and I am not very knowledgeable as I am just an artist and artists shouldn’t be definitely knowledgeable because they wouldn’t have inspiration anymore and inspiration is mostly fuelled by ignorance, I guess – so I think that the European Union is the first ever geographical reality in the history of maps with one outside border and with an inside border. And guess what, within its inside borders it is “E” for Europe and not “U” for EU. But it is us there.And we are a trouble. Everyone knows we are trouble. But at the same time, when we are in trouble, we are basically on our own. I hope this would change,” he went on saying.
“I paid very much attention to what President Pahor said, as he always has the capacity to touch upon the right points. I don’t believe that what is happening would make Europe accelerate the accession process. I think this is not going to happen, although I would really welcome it. This won’t happen for geopolitical reasons, but I hope and I wish that the European Union will be much more open to build a much more inclusive space when it comes to facing dramas. Because they can’t tell us: “Align with the EU foreign policy, be tough on Russia, but on the other hand you won’t get any help to cope with the consequences, like the EU members get. They cannot do any more, I hope for their own sake and for their own honour, what they actually did during the pandemic, as I already said. We were there powerlessly watching on the sidelines, while the vaccines were being sent all over Europe. We have relatives everywhere; as you already know that we are small countries, but we are everywhere, and they didn’t even offer us some vaccine doses for our nurses and doctors. What happened? We ran towards the third actors. In every speech, they say: “Let’s help the Balkans be with us instead of being penetrated by third actors –whatever you call it – but when it came to the vaccines, Serbs ran to China and to Russia, we ran to Turkey and we would have had many more lives lost if it was not for the President Erdogan. So, this is the reality. I very much hope that Europe has learned its own lesson and I hope that the public opinion will still allow Europe to go all the way,” PM Rama concluded.
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