“We truly feel saddened, and I say this with sincerity, that our brothers in North Macedonia have not been able to enter this phase of the process, while they were among the first to start it. As to our humiliations —the opening of accession talks was refused to Albania three times in a row —I feel a bit uneasy, as I have to think about the humiliation of North Macedonia, which had to change its name to begin this process. I stand by everything I have said regarding our Bulgarian friends, because history cannot be a reason to stall accession talks for any country,” said Rama.

At the press conference alongside Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, whose country also holds the EU Presidency, and EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi, PM Rama emphasized that using the bilateral disputes in the EU accession process is malicious.

“It’s not an attack against our Bulgarian friends; we are simply stating something evident. For us, achieving EU membership means looking at the past through the lens of the future, rather than looking to the future through the eyes of the past, as this would lead to complications.”

“Yesterday at the Berlin Process meeting, it was stated that seeing the EU accession process from the angle of bilateral relations harms a country and undermines what is meant to be a family of values and principles,” Rama said, among other things.
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