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Rama to "Associated Press": The summit, a good omen for the future of the Western Balkans and Albania

2022-12-05 21:04:54Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Rama to "Associated Press": The summit, a good omen for the future of
Edi Rama

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has stated that a European Union summit in his country's capital this week demonstrates the EU's increased geostrategic interests in the Western Balkans region due to Russia's war in Ukraine, writes the Associated Press .

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will be the host of the one-day meeting aimed at restarting the EU enlargement process tomorrow.

"The moment is fantastic. No one could have imagined it two years ago and now it is happening", said Rama in an interview for "Associated Press".

Rama has previously criticized the EU for its reluctance to accept new members. The six countries at the center of the summit – Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – have received security for years but have seen their steps towards membership blocked.

According to Rama, the war in Ukraine provided a reminder of the region's vulnerability and gave the EU an incentive to bring the countries of the Western Balkans into Europe's democratic community.

He said that "the bloc should especially work with Serbia, which has not joined the EU sanctions against Russia during the war".

"The common voice of the Western Balkans... helped to push more EU leaders to lead countries on the path to membership because they need the Western Balkans as much as the Western Balkans need the EU," said Rama.

The Prime Minister called tomorrow's meeting "the most important event in the history of international relations (of Albania)", noting that the former communist country was completely cut off from the world and from Europe until 1990".

"The summit will bring a lot for the Western Balkans, for our country, a lot of positive energy, a lot of hope, a lot of new roads, new paths, which will be determined in the next steps," said Rama.

"The decision of the EU to hold the summit outside its territory is a good omen for the future", he added.

With the exception of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia only in 2008, the countries of the Western Balkans were first identified as potential EU candidates in 2003.

Croatia, also part of the region, joined the bloc in 2013 and remains its youngest member, as the EU has not admitted any others since then.

The bloc agreed to start full membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia in July and has held such discussions with Serbia and Montenegro for several years.

The EU executive committee recommended Bosnia as a candidate member in October. The Government of Kosovo has said that it intends to apply for candidacy consideration this month.

Accession talks, which align candidate countries' policies, administrations and economies with those of the bloc, can take years, and the merit-based process is individual to each country.

Rama argued that relations between the countries of the Western Balkans, especially those that made up the former Yugoslavia, have never been better, although he admitted that Serbia's refusal to recognize Kosovo's independence "is still like the elephant in the room".


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