The second Albania-EU intergovernmental conference for the opening of the main chapters was held today in Luxembourg.
In his speech at this conference, Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on the moment when Albania and North Macedonia came together on the path to EU membership, making each other's journey conditional, something that, according to him, was unfair to both countries.
"Albania has been coercively joined with others many times, they joined us with the Italians, with the Stalinists. Quite suddenly we found ourselves united with RMV, it was not so bad that we could share the gloomy situations with each other waiting for the EU. When I talk about our humiliations, we were denied membership three times, RMV changed its name to follow this, so I stand by everything I said about our Bulgarian friends; history cannot be a reason to stop membership talks for any country", said Rama.
He emphasized that in the past the EU has been unfair to candidate countries such as Albania, when it rejected the recommendations drawn up by the European Commission itself.
"It has been 5 long challenging and not easy years, I stand here before this significant step for the integration of Albania in the EU. Unfortunately, with the help of Vladimir Putin, this process gained a new speed after his aggression in Ukraine, which reminded Europe that you need the Western Balkans. The opening of the chapter group with 5 basic chapters and the criteria marks a historical cornerstone towards the complete European reunification. Yesterday I was in Berlin where I participated in the Berlin Summit and a journalist asked me: Does Albania have a plan B if the EU delays the process again as it has done in the past. The EU has often been unfair to the candidate countries, it was unfair to us when it rejected the recommendations drawn up by its own commission, based on facts, but we cannot have an EU plan when it comes to the rule of law and democracy that does not can be guaranteed outside the EU. Albania has fulfilled all the prerequisites to start this phase of integration", said Rama. /Telegraph/
