TIRANA, Sept 23 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama said Tuesday that the European Union’s new Growth Plan marks the beginning of gradual integration into EU financial mechanisms, offering candidate countries like Albania greater access to funding.
Speaking at the “Albania, A New Frontier” conference in Vienna, attended by businesses from over 25 countries, Rama pointed to the disparity in funding between EU member states and candidate countries.
Rama noted that although Albania has doubled its GDP in recent years, the country still lags significantly behind EU member states in terms of per capita EU support.
“Countries like Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania receive over EUR 4,000 per capita in EU funds. Meanwhile, Albania has received just EUR 132 per capita. That gap illustrates the disparity,” he said.
However, he expressed optimism that this is beginning to change.
“Thanks to the new Growth Plan, we’re seeing gradual integration into EU support mechanisms. We’ve told Brussels that it can’t be ‘all or nothing’ – we need meaningful support even before formal accession,” Rama added.
/j.p/u.sh/
