In the panel Expanding European Horizons during the Davos Forum, Prime Minister Edi Rama was asked about the recent scandal involving the European Parliament.
Apologizing to the president of the EP, Roberta Metsola, who was present at the panel, the head of the government responded with a typical English expression that in Albanian can be paralleled with the saying "what you sow you will reap".
"But for us and for me this is not a joke, the EU is the only destination. Even if we never get there, the important part is that we will be able to have an EU-like state with real institutions, real accountability and so on and so forth. But, I'm sorry to say, when this case of corruption came up in the European Parliament, I said, 'Karma is ab...!', said Rama.
Rama also spoke from the World Economic Forum in Davos about the process of expansion of the European Union, which according to him nowadays has changed radically and in a certain way has become unfair for the countries of the Western Balkans, which see the EU as the only way.
According to Rama, if the same rules that are being asked of the Balkan countries today were to be applied again to get the green light for integration, many countries of the union, among themselves and those that founded it, would not be able to meet the criteria .
"There was a lot of good news from Albania and the region, but it was not visible to the European Parliament. We were asked and received support to do this cleaning of corrupt judges from the justice system. We entered this with full confidence and pride that we were doing something that our European "Gods" asked and wanted of us. And guess what, the purge was so radical that we were left without the Constitutional Court. 9 out of 11 judges left because they could not justify the wealth. And we thought that the European Union would like this, but they said 'okay, but you don't have a Constitutional Court'. We operated on the patient successfully, cured him, but BE asked him to run because he had a choice. And before they made these choices they couldn't give us the green light.
The integration process has completely changed, it has become neurotic and unfair, which is good for us as we train our nerves. But if they did the same as they are doing to us, many EU countries would not be able to enter on their own. And I'm not talking about communist countries, but also from the founders. Belive me. This is the reality", said the prime minister, among other things.