TIRANA, Dec 11 /ATA/ In his address at the high-level meeting “Albania 2030 in the EU – The Path of Reforms,” organized by the Albanian Assembly, Prime Minister Edi Rama remarked today that the opposition is invited to join the Special Commission, adding: “If the opposing forces wish to join us, we welcome them with open arms. The commission, which was voted by the Assembly as an inclusive body, has vacant seats for anyone who wishes to join at any time and will be wholeheartedly welcomed.”
Citing the latest report from the Bertelsmann Foundation on good governance, anti-corruption, and the rule of law, Rama said that the report stated, “One of the 8 countries out of 137 with substantial progress in the last decade is the Republic of Albania.”
“All of this means that we can achieve this, we have all the opportunities to do so, but to achieve this, we must unite all the unifying forces. However, as long as I am at the helm of this government and as long as the Socialist Party leads this country, we do not accept ‘I will not come to sit down’ for an answer, they cannot stop us from moving forward. We cannot wait for anyone, because we cannot afford to wait,” emphasized Rama.
“In the worst case,” continued Rama, “we will wait for our partners when they are convinced that we are not hiding anything. We will do this because we have friends in our own house, and you know that a friend is never turned away, but we do not wait for any other force.”
“I know that this is a problem, I know it’s a setback, and what was mentioned here and is frequently mentioned, ‘Political climate, cooperation among political forces,’ is very right. But between two options, we can either wait for cooperation that we know will not happen until it does, wasting time while we should be gaining every minute, and always being ready for any cooperation, or we can make our choice. And this is our choice: to continue moving ahead with all the reforms, to deepen and make irreversible the separation of powers, to step up the fight against corruption and organized crime, which involves the entire state, not just one, two, or three institutions, to guarantee the independence and irreversibility of the justice institutions, and to lead Albania on the road to the European Union membership. Then, surely, brighter minds, wiser young people than me, who is no longer so young but hasn’t become as wise as needed, will do what’s best, and Albania will become a country where the government and opposition will live happily. But until then, we must join the European Union,” said Rama.
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