TIRANA, July 11 /ATA/-By Maela Marini/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday underlined the need for a different approach of the European Union to integrate the Western Balkan region financially too.
The government head Rama had a conversation with Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, on the sidelines of the Vilnius NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Asked about his most recent tour to the Western Balkan countries, PM Rama underlined that he has continuously demanded for “the EU accession talks to be opened as soon as possible, while it doesn’t matter when the membership takes place.”
PM Rama stated that a different EU approach is needed towards the region.
“The recent crises have actually widened the gap between the Western Balkan countries and the European Union in terms of the funding allocated and shared among the member states. Our neighboring countries, but which are also EU member states, were provided with due financial packages to overcome and recover from the pandemic and the energy crisis, as a sum of 4800 euros was made available per capita, compared to 1320 euros per capita for our countries. So a part of the pre-accession funds had to be restructured and the political negotiations should combine with the EU reforms, because the decision-making within the EU is a mess,” PM Rama said.
/r.e/u.sh/
