A discussion session around the first-ever EU-Western Balkans Summit to be held in the region, in Tirana, continued in Brussels, where Prime Minister Edi Rama was invited to attend a special session along with the President of North Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski and the Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazović.
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Host: And last, but not least, thank you also for making the journey Edi. I know it was a very early start given that you hosted the Summit in Tirana. Tell us, give us your honest reflections of what you felt happened yesterday and, as I said, has there anything changed? Is that the same or do you see any glimmer of hope that Ukraine is now creating a different context in this conversation?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for this opportunity, really. This is also a great opportunity to finally disagree with Stevo, because we have been agreeing so much lately, and it has become unbearable. It is a moment to disagree. When someone asked me long ago, what Albania can bring to Europe and to the European Union? It is not easy to answer this question, right? And therefore I said, we can perhaps bring some smile.
And we brought smile to their faces yesterday. Did you see their faces yesterday?
They obviously felt better than when they gather in the boring Brussels or in their depressed big capitals. The great thing was that in taking the family photo we chose a different way and I very much hope they will now change the way they make the family photo, but it was great to hear voices behind my back saying: “the sun; look at the sun; what a beautiful sun.”
It was like people just getting out of a dark cave after a long time in there and enjoying the sun, because it was a nice and sunny weather yesterday in Tirana and these are the good things we gave to the European Union yesterday.
But talking about the smile, I think it is more profound than just one may notice superficially. Because, first of all Albanians are very loyal. And we are never boring. And these two things are very much needed in the European Union.
We are very loyal and the popularity – and this is where I fully disagree with Stevo, I mean I don’t disagree about North Macedonia, because this is true for North Macedonia and for Montenegro too – but we are different. The popularity of the EU in Albania is still very high and this is not because I am saying it, but this is confirmed by the Brussels oracle, namely the EU barometer.
The EU barometer finds Albania the most pro-EU country on the continent, because we have emerged from hell, but not from the French hell, which is a paradise although they call it a hell. We came from the real one because we were totally isolated.
For us, Yugoslavia where these guys used to live was a kind of a planet of freedom. It was the European Union, even better than today’s European bloc, I guess, in some ways, except for our Kosovo brothers and sisters. As a matter of fact we became naturally so devoted to the EU that nobody and nothing can change us.
And not only because we have been always devoted to empires, which is true. It is true, we were the last ones to leave the Ottoman Empire, even when the Turks decided to leave, we were still staying there.
Yesterday’s Summit was an amazing historical event. I think it was the most important event in the history of Albania’s international relations. In our old code, the Kanun, our common law, there is a very important part of it stipulating that “an Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.” This means that every guest is the will of God and therefore we have to welcome them. Yesterday we had both gods and guests, because the gods of EU came to Albania. And this was amazing. But more than everything for the region, to me this was the very clear signal that it has been already understood that the EU needs the Western Balkans as much as the Western Balkans need the EU.
The Russian influence is present and the Russian danger is real.
Nobody in Albania cares about Russia, because we had Stalin until 1990. They got rid before, and they are getting in from the back door. This is the reason why it is very important to keep the reason together, and to keep the EU and the region together, because if you have these layers of the Russian influence, which are very active, combined with the EU approach, which is not a very active one, things can then really mess up, things can turn out to be problematic from North Macedonia, Montenegro and then to the Serbian space, where it is even worse, in terms of vulnerability. That’s why we need to keep together and that’s why I always say that it is very crucial that Serbia too is on board so far, although this is not completely when it comes to the sanctions, but when it comes to aligning with the United Nations in condemning the aggression, Serbia is genuinely on the UN side.
Host: And there is plenty of opportunity for everyone to speak and we will listen to all of you. You talked about smiles, gods and guests. But what you haven’t said is what has changed? Has anything changed? Did you get a sense of optimism? You hosted the Summit there and that gives a lot of confidence to the region and Albania. But, did the tone of enlargement change?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yesterday I was the host and I was very kind with them. I didn’t say anything disturbing and I told them that if Albania would have gone to the Great Powers we would have been complaining, but the Great Powers came to Albania and therefore we had to be nice hosts. However, I have to say here as usually what I actually think and I truly think that something fundamental is changing and I can explain during this discussion what this fundamental thing is. What I do suggest to my friends is don’t see the change just in the form of membership, because this won’t by the way happen in a near future. So we should see the change in a different way. In the meantime, we have to work very hard for our EU membership, because it is for us and it is not for them. It is for us. We need to deliver and do our homework, because we can’t ask for a diploma without attending the university first and claim: “We are being through suffering and we have graduated from the high school, but we want you to grant us the diploma as we want to work as engineers.” But you can’t work as an engineer, because you are completely incapable. We need to develop skills and become capable first and then join the bloc and be fully capable to be a decent member and stay there, not because you are capable of messing things up, but because you are model countries where the rule of law prevails and everything else – I am not repeating all the Brussels predictions.
-(Comment by participants) I would like to make a clear point to the West Europeans, I am very worried when hearing Germans and the French saying “there can’t be anymore enlargement until the EU fundamentally changes and takes decisions on issues like sanctions and taxation policies. I think that this way the message that comes across the Western Balkans is “you are there at the back of the queue and you will remain in that queue forever.” There is another Albanian joke, which Edi didn’t mention, but which my Albanian interviewees said. The question is “when Albania will join the EU”? And the answer is: “When the EU no longer exists.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I have to correct him about the joke’s source, because Albania is not the source of this joke. The joke was different in Albania. During the time of the fights and frustration, because they didn’t want to talk with us, and the joke was between an euro-optimist and euro-pessimist. The euro-optimist said that Albania will join the EU together with Türkiye. The euro-pessimist said Albania will join the EU when Türkiye holds the EU Presidency,. So, this is the difference. The joke that “we will join when the EU no longer exists” sounds as if coming from a kind of Serb depression.
May I react to what Paul said? Just two things; first of all, thank you for saying that we know our region better than the EU does. You are the first European to acknowledge it. This is amazing and thank you for that. But since we know better than you do, then you have to listen to us now. However, I am not going to take Kanan’s time. His name is actually very complicated. His second name is Kanani and that’s why I call him Kanan. Kanan is an Albanian name. I don’t want to take his time. I would just like to say this: It is not true that France and Germany share the same position.
On the contrary, Germany has advanced its position dramatically and you have to attach a bit more attention to the new Chancellor, because may be you are still following the old one, but there is a new Chancellor in Berlin, who is constantly repeating that speeding up full integration of the Western Balkans is a strategic goal for Germany.
France is somehow a bit more complicated, but it is great that finally the process of creating this new European Political Community has started. It should have actually started – if I am not wrong – in the 18th century, when abate de Saint-Pierre first introduced his platform and all the then leaders were fascinated, but it didn’t happen, because there were sadly some petty things they couldn’t agree upon. Then it was Mitterrand to reintroduce the very same idea in 1991 in Prague, but it was totally sabotaged. However, it is very important exactly for what we are talking right now and for what you rightly said. If this is written on the Report, we should do everything to deliver, because this is a fundamental thing. The anticipation of the moves that we shouldn’t wait for the EU membership to happen, we should move in various directions.
So fully aligning with the EU shouldn’t be taken for granted, although we will certainly fully align, but it should also be supported. So the new political community, the Summit in Tirana, in the Balkans and the wording are all a very important signal. I haven’t the reputation of being optimistic about the European Union, but I think we have to be optimistic, because there are many things that are really positive. Of course, the risk that they turn on the other side and keep sleeping again is really big. I very much hope that the European Union, which is back because of the war, will not wait for another war to happen and start talking again about another chapter. I think it should now continue to deepen this process and give more oxygen to our countries, so that they can be able to run faster. Because we can’t run faster without having some support. I brought here Greece’s experience with the budget, but just imagine the amount for all the countries, and when it comes to us is a very small one.
This is what I would say, but frankly speaking, after a very long time, I am again optimistic about the possibility of important changes, when it comes to us, but also to Europe. And my very last word is I strongly believe that the European Union should actually start thinking and working today for what the next day after this conflict would be. The EU should start thinking that this hasn’t to do just with the reconstruction of Ukraine, because there is not just one Ukraine in our continent.
There are other Ukraine-like situations waiting to erupt and it is about a larger region to be carried. Ukraine is indeed the visible wound, but the whole organism is actually suffering. So a renaissance plan for Europe with a very visible and tangible agenda of a change vision to make people dream again, to make people hope again, because it is not just in the Montenegro that people have the clouds and the rain in their minds, but they can be found in Paris too, where there are many people asking “where is my house” than people who know where their house is, because they are completely lost and their GPS is completely gone. We have to give some hope and new dream to our people. I was actually speaking here as a European, not like someone from the Balkans, because people in the Balkans have their dreams for centuries long and they will never lose them.
