Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at plenary session of the Parliament:

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to each and every one Socialist Party MPs for the exceptional contribution they have provided to the efforts to ensure the justice system reform initially and the latter vetting process did not remain simply a broad public’s big wish and an unfeasible national ambition, but instead turn into applicable constitutional and legal norms.

I’m very grateful to MPs who involved in the process of drafting the justice reform and to each member of our parliamentary group who safeguarded this reform with dogged determination, although we quite well remember – since it is not a distant memory – that at a crucial moment of the reform’s adoption or its failure, the government itself and our ruling majority were threatened.

A special appreciation goes to the members of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on Justice System Reform, to members of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, and certainly to all of those who supported our work in the role of external experts from the from the academic world and within the justice system itself.

Albania today has earned a new status among the European society and the unequivocal recommendation made by the European Commission represents a meaningful certificate attesting to completion of one of our homework required to open the accession negotiations.

A crucially important historic phase has completed whilst another equally historic phase has begun, because the coming process is a process of great responsibilities and major challenges.

Everything we have done to date by putting enormous amounts of effort and patience doesn’t absolutely mean it is now over in terms of necessity to invest extraordinary energies in this process, but, quite on the contrary, it means these energies need to multiply.

I would like to point out that the European Commission is a merciless mechanism when it comes to reading to each aspect concerning the fulfilment of all priorities the Commission sets forth in a written form and the recommendation to open the negotiation is merit-based only.

The European Commission doesn’t offer gifts and it has never shown signs of generosity to anyone. In this context, the fact the European Commission has recognized the country’s adequate progress to reach make a decision – not an easy for the Commission at a time when the united Europe is not in its heyday regarding the great enlargement process – is exceptionally valuable.

Of course, all aspects and priorities, from the first to the fifth, have had their role in this Albania’s milestone achievement, but our battle for the vetting, a battle we resolutely fought even when on our own – was essential. Certainly, by saying we were alone I mean the battle in this hall, not broad either public or international support we enjoyed. We all recall that EC has recommended opening of the accession negotiations with Albania 2016 on the assumption (read condition) that the country moves ahead with the vetting process.

Albania has received today a clear, direct and unconditional recommendation that the European Union member states open the membership talks with Albania, exactly because the vetting has started to yield initial results. But there is a huge difference between the phase we concluded and the phase that just has begun. To figure out this difference, the simplest and yet most significant example is exactly the justices system reform and the vetting process.

If launching the vetting process has been so far sufficient to complete one stage – and some 21 persons have been self-excluded or fired from the justice system to date – the new phase requires that not only the system be cleansed of all corrupt judges and prosecutors, but also to function as a clean system to anyone who has scores to settle with justice, which means that removing corrupt judges and prosecutors will not suffice, but they should also be held accountable, just like politicians, high-level officials and undoubtedly all other violators of the law should be held accountable in front of a justice system free of corrupt people and free of rusty chains of political capture.

So, it is a new difficult phase which will require real enforcement of the justice system’s power against offenders.

On the other hand, it is of special importance to underline that during this new phase, just like it has happened in all countries that have opened the negotiations with the European Union, the country gains a fresh impetus in terms of economic development; gains new convincing power for foreign investment; a new negotiating strength regarding the necessity to grow the presence of large companies that create jobs and pave the way for entering a new stage in the reward of work.

The recommendation regarding the country’ economy has remained completely out of focus and this is natural.

If we are to see what the report sets forth, it clearly provides track-record of a very significant progress, which also forms the basis of the country’s further socio-economic development.

If we analyse figures, which are provided by the European Commission and, I repeat, one should not forget the European Commission is the most inflexible mechanism when it comes to figures and the economy figures in particular, with Albania marking a significant tangible progress in growth, reducing the unemployment rate, and the internal balance of the state’s accounts.

If the economy grew from zero to around 4% last year, in 2018 Albania’s economy will grow at least one percentage point above the current 4% rate and our projection – something about which we vowed during the last June’s election campaign – is to exceed the 5% threshold within our second term in office, meaning that we will reach a certain point with the economic growth no longer seen by many simply a statistic, but a added, tangible value in the real economy of each Albanian household.

Of course, it would have been much better we were all together in this process and not only with the governing majority being always present and ready to cope with every challenge and determined to win every battle, while the opposition always missing, or always opposing everything, either when we had to adopt the Constitutional changes, or to pass the law on vetting, or even today when no one should take advantage of anyone or anywhere in Europe to make things up about Albania.

I would like to make a distinction. The European Commission’s recommendation is the document proving we have done our homework one by one. The EU member states’ decision is the moment when Albania should be supported politically too. Of course, not everyone agrees, not necessarily they have a problem with Albania, but because in each EU member state and the big members in particular there is a dynamic clearly shows a growing threat to the united Europe project from individuals and forces that are seeking to close and not enlarge the bloc.

In this aspect, it is unacceptable and inexcusable in relation to the history and in relation to the Albanian people that even a single Albanian who is given the opportunity to speak and communicate with anyone at any level in the EU member states joins these individuals and forces by feeding them with our internal political smear campaign. This is what has also happened in Berlin just 48 hours earlier. This is what unfortunately will keep on happening until the last second. This is what really makes the relation with opposition embarrassing and uneasy, because the opposition is far from being that mature to rise to the occasion, when every Albanian who is given the opportunity to speak in a foreign language about his own homeland should say the right word to the benefit of his country.

Certainly, without the Socialist Party and without the Socialist Party’s government, Albania would have not succeeded in becoming a EU candidate country in spite of the talks to brag about after a battle, Albania wouldn’t have received the conditional recommendation in 2016, Albania wouldn’t have received the recommendation to open the accession negotiations today. This is indisputable! However, it doesn’t mean this is a Socialist Party’s, the government’s or my personal victory, because at the end of the day this is a result of long years work, although someone has done more and someone else less, despite the fact that Albania has progressed well during a period of the history and has plunged into abyss during periods.

In this aspect, I would like to reiterate this responsibility is huge for the country’s future and it is in the country’s best interest to reiterate we want and we are ready to do whatever it takes and we are tasked with doing and the opposition, in the best scenario, refrain from speaking against Albania and exporting the domestically made mud to the capitals of the EU member states and then, in the ideal scenario joins us in this effort, because opening the negotiations doesn’t mean immediate accession and path towards membership is long and uphill and it requires the contribution of us all and while progressing n this path we should follow the example of the countries that have succeeded.

Hectic political battles traditionally take place in other countries as well. The political scuffle between the government and opposition has often reached its peak in the countries that are EU members today. But no country that is a EU member today has ever exported the internal rows and disagreements, the domestic political rhetoric to the offices where their country is evaluated as a whole. That’s why they have succeeded and have done things better than us.

The latest case of Bulgaria would suffice to show this. Bulgaria holds today the rotating presidency of the European Union. The government and opposition have been and are engaged in a very heated political debate. However, both the government and the opposition have equally contributed to the Bulgarian Presidency’s program. No other ad hoc Commission does what our Commission does when visiting Brussels and when the discussion with the other party turns into a local theatre stage with the other side becoming an audience watching how Albanians trade barbs with each other. No such a Commission exists elsewhere! No MPs or opposition representatives wander up and down the Brussels corridors or corridors of other European capitals with handbags holding propaganda documents against their own country, because although claiming such documents represent evidence against a government that is not governing well the country, indeed these documents are used against your own country itself.

Of course, we share a greater responsibility than the opposition MPs who are not here today  – and in fact for times now they are not present in the stage of political debate and alternatives – to do the best possible in order to create the most possible favourite climate of interaction, not to say cooperation as it currently sounds utopian. To conclude, I would say it is up to us that at the end of the day not to forget that as pace of state-building reforms speeds up we should be much closer to the people and ready to face this challenge, first and foremost in relation to the people, because the European integration process is not a process of making the suitcase and taking Albania to Brussels, but it is a process of building the European Albania itself here; the process of building an European justice system here; the process of building a functioning economy here; process of ensuring and delivering European services here. It certainly takes time and extraordinary efforts, patience, determination and readiness to achieve all of these. Determination to move ahead and readiness to explain, explain and again explain.

Therefore, it is not only indispensable to learn our lessons by correctly reading our mistakes, but, above all, it is a necessity so that we cease repeating same mistakes and allow the inertia of an unchallengeable government, and this is the most dangerous one since it is much easier to govern when facing a challenging opposition and it is much more difficult to maintain the pace of doing things rightfully when facing a ridiculous opposition.

Thank you very much!