The “Karlspreis” Foundation, associated with the prestigious international award “Karlspreis – Charlemagne Prize” (International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen), one of the highest European honors for over seven decades, gathered in Tirana laureates of this award alongside young leaders in a cross-generational and in-depth dialogue on the future of Europe.
At this high-level event “NextGEN Voices for Europe” (Voices of the New Generation for Europe), focused on youth and European cooperation, Prime Minister Edi Rama, together with two laureates of the “Karlspreis” award, Mr. Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament, and Mrs. Veronika Tsepkalo, an active member of the Belarusian opposition, as well as Dr. Jürgen Linden, Chairman of the Governing Board of the “International Charlemagne Prize,” greeted the winners of the Karlspreis Youth Award, as well as young Albanians, emphasizing the role of youth in the future of the continent.
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As the last speaker, the host of the event. I have the same or similar geopolitical question, but since we are on the topic of youth activism, and being here in this building with an audience primarily composed of global organizations from all over the world, I would like to ask you, Prime Minister, you yourself were a political activist and part of the youth movement to bring change to this country, as mentioned by Mrs. Tsepkalo, this was 35 years ago. This was the reality in this corner of Europe. How do you see the reality of youth in this part of the Balkans today, and how can we face the broader geopolitical challenge?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you! First of all, let me sincerely thank Jürgen from the “Karlspreis” for accepting the joint initiative, which I consider something born today, and I don’t believe it will be just a one-time event, but we can take it further, and why not create an award for European youth.
Secondly, I want to thank Martin for coming here. Today, he is the chairman of the “Friedrich Ebert” Foundation, the largest and most renowned political foundation in the world, and I’m sure you understand how many invitations they receive, but the fact that he chose to come here today honors us, and I am very happy we had the opportunity to re-engage in a discussion that we started long ago.
We have Dr. Linden, and also Mr. Von den Linden, a long-time friend of this country and the Albanian people since the beginning of its journey after the fall of communism. He is a Dutch politician who manages to navigate quite well between being Dutch and European, which is impressive.
I haven’t forgotten the German ambassador, who is always here, interested in hearing what the Germans visiting this country have to say and then reporting exactly what was said here in Berlin.
Now, coming to the question, I don’t want to take much of your time by going back 35 years or a little more when I was as young as the attendees in the audience, and I got involved in the movement to change and seek another way of life, to seek freedom. But what I want to say is that I am not happy when I see young people who do not understand how important politics is, and who believe that by discarding politics as something dirty, something far from them, something they don’t want to deal with, they think they can escape it, but they cannot. Politics will follow you all the time. It’s an illusion to believe that if you stay out of it today, it won’t affect you. On the contrary, the more people stay out of it, the greater the chances they will be negatively affected by it, because it is about participation, not about a profession. It’s not about being a politician, or running for office, or abandoning your work or passions. It’s about engagement as a citizen. Being engaged as someone who cares for their rights and, above all, for their freedoms.
Today, we are having this extraordinary discussion about justice that follows or targets high-profile figures. It’s not perfect. There are many disadvantages, but it’s the first time in history that we have politically powerful people who go before an independent prosecutor and judge. This has never happened, since 1912, since our independence, until just a few years ago when we finalized the Justice Reform, with the help of the European Union. We had never seen a minister or a high-profile individual connected to political power being brought before a court, let alone convicted.
There’s even more to say about the European Union in this regard. It is very complex, very complicated, but perhaps God saved Donald Trump’s life, not just to make America great again, but to finally awaken Europe and give it the opportunity to understand that it cannot continue as if the world were the same, because it is not the same.
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I know we’ve exceeded the time that was originally planned, and I also know that the Prime Minister has other commitments. Prime Minister, do you have any final message for the audience, primarily related to education? What more can the EU do to strengthen and empower human capital?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I don’t think I have a final message, but perhaps there are more things to say, especially when we talk about this kind of topic in the moment we are living in, which makes the issue even more complex. And as Martin said, it makes it important for us to answer this question from all perspectives at this conference. But what I would like to add, after hearing what was said by the previous speakers, is that for the younger generation, and even more so for the younger generation, the European Union is the answer, much more than anything else outside the European Union. I don’t want to bring painful examples, but let’s look at the United Kingdom after “Brexit.” How are things going for the youth there? Or let’s look, for example, at how this illusion of the UK having more money, more tools, more power by being outside the EU, how it has been destroyed, shattered, and has broken many different networks, many forceful walls that were built inside the EU.
So, I think the EU has many things it can be criticized for, and not because it’s the wrong project, but because the project is not finished. Therefore, despite the complaints, the headaches, and the neurotic bureaucracy, in the end, what we’re talking about is a very, very solid foundation. I don’t believe there’s anything more visionary, more sophisticated, in a wonderful form, that could ever be created in anyone’s mind in the history of humanity than the European Union itself. That’s how I see it. Perhaps, since we’re talking about aging, I think that the more the years pass, the more I become aware of what we could lose if the European Union is weakened, and what a tragedy it would be if the EU were to disappear. It would be like leaving, stepping out of history on our own feet.
Thank you!
