Remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama and the High Representative/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini at the press point following bilateral meeting in Tirana:
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It is a pleasure for me that on the eve of the Summit organized for the heads of state, I have the opportunity of having a bilateral meeting with the High Representative/Vice-President of the European Commission, whom I would like to thank for the time, attention and the continuous support she has provided to Albania in the European integration process.
We spoke about the entirety of the reforms, we talked about our expectations on the eve of the European Commission’s Progress report, as well as further progress of all efforts aimed at deepening the reforms and transforming all aspects of the country’s life thanks to the reforms.
It’s not a secret that we expect only a response from the European Commission is the answer that we have completely done our homework and we deserve opening of the membership negotiations. Of course, our expectations are justified, not because that someone should donate us something, but because we have done all the tasks we have been assigned and Albania speaks through the language of results and accomplishments on which the country should be evaluated.
Of course, I am not going to take too much of your time to make a list of the priorities and the relevant outcomes visa-a-vis the priorities for the country, nor would I take your time to underline the progress of the fundamental reforms in this process, which is the justice system reform and its tangible outcomes, but I wish to once again reiterate what we discussed, or more precisely, what I expressed to the High Representative of the European Union that we are aware of the fact that, at the end of the day, the judgement and the final decision thereof on the Commission’s recommendation will depend on the specific circumstances of the member states.
We are aware of the fact that the decision-making on us at the level of member states depend on us as they do depend also on factors that go beyond us, but we believe that it is high time to finalize an effort for a phase that is the preparation time for the negotiations and formally open the membership negotiations.
Of course, thanks to the undeniable outcome, and I am talking about the last year’s results. Last year we were given the opportunity to start screening process, which going on intensively in Brussels. Therefore, we haven’t lost anytime at all vis-à-vis the technical process itself, but the formal opening of the negotiations is certainly the missing cornerstone in this foundation of this building to continue our European path through the negotiations.
We also discussed about the Berlin Summit and talked about the challenges of regional cooperation and interaction, we talked about the dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia as an inalienable part of the agenda on the region’s progress towards the European and regional integration process.
Once again thank you very much dear Federica!
I would like to conclude by giving you the floor, expressing at the same time the awareness that whatever we have been doing thus far is enough to open the negotiations, yet it is far from being sufficient for fulfilling all our obligations, not towards the European Union, but first and foremost towards our citizens of this country in service of the future and Albania that we need to build for our children, which shall of course will be reflected as a tangible result in the new phase of Albania’s membership in EU.
Mrs. Mogherini: Thank you very much, Edi. It is for me really a pleasure to be back in Tirana once again and to meet you again a week after our last meeting in Berlin.
Almost exactly one year ago, I was here for my last visit. I remember very well also the emotion of flying here straight from Strasbourg, bringing the good news of a positive recommendation that the Commission had just adopted. One year ago – probably in this very same room – I praised you, you Edi [Rama] as the Prime Minister, but also all the institutions and all the citizens of Albania for your achievements and for getting a positive recommendation to open accession negotiations. That was, I think, a very important moment for both of us, not only for Albania, but also for the European Union. I believe that this message of encouragement and recognition of the work done was fully deserved.
In one year since then, you have managed to consolidate this progress and to continue to show concrete results of your engagement on reform. I will not list all the areas on which you had achievements, but I want to commend your work for three major developments that I will mention as examples of how far Albania has gone on the reform path. And that show, I believe, you are going through a genuine reform process, a genuine transformation process of the country, of the institutions, of the society. A you said, “not to please the European Union institutions”, but to respond to the expectations of the Albanian people that, in fact, show a lot of support for these reforms to continue and take place.
First of all, what has been achieved with the justice reform remains unprecedented not only in the region. You often say this and I fully subscribe to it: you managed to put in place a justice system reform that would be an example also for some of the European Union Member States in a process that has never been easy, but that has started to deliver results. The vetting of judges and prosecutors is bringing tangible results and the dedication of members of the vetting institution is clear. We can see how proud the Albanian citizens are – and food good reason – of this reform. The results of the last survey that was published by the European Union delegation just a few days ago show that almost 80% of Albanians support this reform and the majority of them believe it brings positive results to their own lives, to their own country. This is key to building trust in the new judicial institutions.
The second example I would like to mention is the drastic reduction in cannabis cultivation. The aerial surveys conducted by Italy with the support of the European Union and the full commitment of the Albanian authorities to eradicate this phenomenon are bringing impressive results already.
Last but not least, I want to mention a number of large scale operations that took place in the past year, which helped dismantle criminal groups. Actions of this kind must be acknowledged and I think that it is not only your responsibility and your job, but also ours to acknowledge and mention the achievements and the steps forward that you managed to build and to achieve.
Because you have continued to show commitment to reforms and continued to deliver, I believe we need to continue to be fully supportive of Albania’s goal to open accession negotiations with the European Union. I know that the work we are doing in the Commission in view of adopting the next package at the end of May will recognise this further progress and this consolidation of the work you have done. You know that not only personally, but also in my institutional capacity, I have always delivered this message and I do this also on this visit. On your side there is the responsibility to deliver – first and foremost for the Albanian citizens, but also for responding to the European Union institutions – and we have on our side the responsibility to acknowledge the progress achieved and to respond to that with positive decisions. This will be reflected in the package that the European Commission will adopt later this month. As you said, then the ball passes to the Member States and the Council.
I want to say this clearly: opening negotiations in June is, I believe, an attainable goal. But this is not an easy one and it cannot be taken for granted today, because as you mentioned, each of our Member States needs to be fully convinced. Public opinions need to fully be on board and each Member State has its own decision-making process on the matter. This is now, I believe, our common objective to use these coming weeks to make sure that the orientations both in the public opinions and in the decision-making processes in the Member States acknowledge the results achieved as well as the Commission is doing.
So we encourage all in Albania, not only the Prime Minister, who seems to need no encouragement, and not only the government, but also other institutions and also the citizens of the country to contribute by reaching out to all your friends in the European Union in all the Member States to build trust in your country, in the image of your country and in our common future. This collective work means also, I believe, that all parties must be united behind the objective of the European Union integration of Albania and put aside their divisions when it comes to this. I believe it is what the Albanian citizens and in particular the youth of Albania put as a priority for their present and their future – the European integration of the country.
You know that the European Union has constantly repeated this position and I will also reiterate it here and now: We believe that political parties should not walk away from their role in democratic processes and their responsibilities towards the citizens, who voted for them. Citizens should not be deprived of political options during the upcoming local elections. This is a position that we have expressed several times and you can trust this to be a strong and united position in all the European Union institutions, starting from the European Parliament and all the political groups there.
I believe this is what Albanian citizens expect. I think they want all parties to support their legitimate and possible aspirations and I would again refer to our survey’s results: 88% of Albanians have a positive feeling about the European Union. Albanian remains one of the countries in Europe that has the highest trust in the European Union. 92% of Albanians share the goal of joining the European Union and that puts, obviously, a great responsibility on all leaders in the country, no matter the political colour. But let me come to our side, this is also a message to political leaders and political parties and public opinions inside the European Union. I believe we should listen to this message. It is for me in a way the best possible way of celebrating Europe Day tomorrow, doing it probably in the European country that has the highest support for the European Union. I am proud to celebrate Europe Day here in Tirana these days.
You know that you can count on me personally in all my capacities in the institutions to do all I can to achieve our common goal. It is your goal and it is also our goal. It is also the European Union’s interest to start this process of formal negotiations for accession.
Let me also stress, as you rightly did, the regional dimension of our joint work. Good neighbourly relations, coordination and cooperation within the region remain an essential element of our work and also of the enlargement process. I think that the Prespa Agreement can be a role model for a peaceful resolution of disputes in the region and beyond. This is not only a success for Greece and North Macedonia, this is, I believe, as success for the entire region and Europe as a whole. Albania has expressed its full support to its neighbours and we and I personally count on Albania to take a continued constructive role in the region. There are other reconciliation processes, which must be supported by all of us in the interest of not only of the parties, but also in the interest of the stability and the economic prosperity of the entire region. We have an ambitious shared agenda for regional cooperation, for which the positive role of Albania is essential. I count on this to continue in the comings months.
We also share the goal of further consolidating the security cooperation between Albania and the European Union. Over the past months – and I want to mention this as further results of our cooperation in this recent year – Albania has demonstrated that it remains a credible partner in this field also. A Cooperation Agreement was signed with Eurojust and the agreement with our European Boarder and Coast Guard Agency has become operational. The first such agreement with a non-European Union country. Albania has also been a frontrunner in defining priorities for a bilateral action plan to strengthen the fight that we share against terrorism and violent extremism. And let me once again reiterate our appreciation for Albania’s alignment with the European Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is showing how much we share analysis and interests in both regional and global politics.
When it comes to fundamental interests and I believe also our fundamental values, I believe that we share views and destiny. Albania is part of Europe, not only geographically. Again, I want to stress how proud and happy I am to spend my Europe Day and start my Europe Day tomorrow here in Tirana with you. I would like to conclude by reassuring you that you will continue to have my full support, as always, to move further towards our shared goal of European Union accession for Albania.
Thank you.
Q: Would it be disappointing for the Western Balkan countries if accession talks were not opened and elections were not held in Albania, as the opposition claims? Do you think this would be disappointing for EU Member States as well?
Mrs. Mogherini: I think I have been very clear not only today, but also over all these years: it is not only in the interest of Albania, but it is also in the interest of the European Union to start negotiations for the accession of Albania to the European Union. This is based on a clear assessment of facts. Already last year, the positive recommendation of the Commission was saying this and recommending Member States to open negotiations. Last year, Member States decided to take this decision after one year of further work and assessment. And as I mentioned here very clearly today, Albania has used this year to consolidate and make further progress in relevant fields. Obviously, more can always be done. But it is clear, as Edi [Rama] said, that you have done your part. Now it is for the Commission first and then for the Member States to do their part. And for me personally, it would be a big disappointment if that decision was not to be taken now, in a few months. But my usual habit is not to consider how disappointed I could be if the result of my work is negative, but it is rather to focus all the energy on trying to get to a positive outcome. We still have a few months to work together to make that happen. As I said, it is not easy, it should not be taken for granted, but it is not impossible to achieve that, I think.
PM Rama: Given that the question was addressed to both of us, first and foremost I have to say that I would find myself in a difficult situation if we, that is Albania and the government of Albania as responsible for representing the country and governing the country, a responsibility vis-à-vis the tasks written in black and white in the course of process. So if there was the case of certain non-fulfilment and vacuum, and if that was to be found then of course it would render us responsible.
However, I have stated and I wish to reiterate it once again. We have done our part of the job and we have done our best to the end. Then when it comes to how much we do or we don’t do our own share that is something that is evaluated by the European Commission, which is the structure chosen and funded by the all EU member states to exactly this task. So if last year we received a positive and unconditional recommendation from the European Commission, it meant that we did our homework. If the European Council, at the political level, decided that a decision will be made this June, what this means is that it is a question of a decision-making being beyond us. The member states have their own legitimacy to take their own decisions and evaluation of the internal circumstances in the member states is something that belongs to their governments and their leadership. But, as much as we are concerned, we have deserved opening the negotiations already since last year, that is the previous June, and we are looking forward to seeing the release of the report by the European Commission so that we are given what we deserve; the unconditional recommendation that confirms that the tasks we have been assigned for have been already accomplished and given that the Council has written itself that it will take a decision this June, it has to do so this June.
As to the elections, I affirm that the elections will be held on June 30 and it is for sure that on June 30 the 61 mayors of the municipalities and the new municipal council members will be elected. Sot this is a matter of fact. It is our task to do whatever belongs to us and whatever we are responsible for doing in this process. Other institutions will do their own share and should take care of their responsibilities as well, whereas who takes part in the elections and who doesn’t participate it is something that the parties have to decide for themselves. What is worth stating is that it is for sure that the citizens will cast their ballots on June 30 for the local elections.
Q: Madam Mogherini, you have come to Tirana to take part in a Summit that the President will be leading but also for the celebrations under the Europe Day. As the EU Ambassador Soreca has already said you have no plans to negotiate a resolution to this situation. You have done this back in 2017 when the situation wasn’t that serious and the parliamentary opposition back then had simply boycotted the parliament but they hadn’t renounced their mandates. So why is there no initiative from the European Union side to resolve the Albanian parliament’s conflict? Are you convinced that political parties in Albania can find a solution by themselves as was the case in 2017? Or are you just disappointed by the political parties in the country, because they produce crises all the time? And the second question, if you may, at the Berlin Summit there seems to have been regress in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue and the Serbian President Vucic has said that he will not recognize Kosovo even they were to hang him but the Kosovo Prime Minister accuses you, Prime Minister Edi Rama, Kosovo President and the Serbian one that you are part of a plan for the division of Kosovo.
Mrs. Mogherini: I normally have a rule that when a journalist asks two questions I pick and choose which one I would answer to, but I can make an exception I believe. As for the first part of the question, I never enter, or never promote, negotiations or mediations among political parties in a country – neither inside the European Union, nor outside the European Union. This is for domestic politics to handle. The European Union’s role is to relate to the institutions of the country – all of them, the government, the President, the Parliament and the society – and this is the role to which I strictly keep. So I have not done any negotiation or mediation in 2017 in domestic dynamics of politics in Albania, and I have never done that in other countries either. This is not our approach to institutional relations and political relations with our partner countries. So this is the answer I believe for your first question.
On the second question regarding the dialogue. The dialogue has been, first of all, producing results that have been important over the years, both for Belgrade and Prishtina and for the region. The last months have been difficult and they have been difficult right at the moment when we could have entered into a phase of more intense negotiations. Our objective has been and still is and remains that of reaching a mutually agreed, legally binding agreement that would cover all aspects of normalisation, to reach a full normalisation of relations between Prishtina and Belgrade.
In the recent months, the decision of the government of Kosovo to introduce 100% tariffs on goods coming from Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina has created an environment that is clearly not conducive for a constructive talks in the dialogue and by the way is in breach of agreements that Kosovo is part of. So we have asked, not only from the European Union side, but also from other international partners and directly with Member States, to revoke or suspend these tariffs. This would create immediately the conditions for the dialogue to resume. I am convinced that if the tariffs were revoked tonight, tomorrow I would call for a new session of the dialogue ad that would be difficult, as usual, painful, as usual, but maybe productive. In the absence of a conducive environment, obviously, I do not see perspectives for that to resume.
Now the responsibility lies in the hands of the decision-makers in Kosovo. Obviously, as I said previously, a conducive environment for negotiations would also mean a sort of freeze or suspension of the recognition or de-recognition campaigns that have taken place recently. After Berlin, my impression is also that we are not there. But that does not mean that we are giving up on facilitating a dialogue. To my knowledge, we are not part of any plot. The role of a facilitator is that of creating the conditions, the atmosphere, the possibility, the space for the two sides to come together. The dialogue belongs to them; it does not belong to us. Not only are we respectful of the positions of the two sides, but also we take very seriously our role, my personal role, of not determining the content of a future agreement, but allowing discussions on what this legally binding agreement on full normalisation of relations could entail. Obviously, we need to create that space – re-create that space. I hope that wisdom will prevail, because nobody would gain from a continuous stalemate in the dialogue. For sure not Kosovo, for sure not Serbia, but also not the rest of the region, because reconciliation and normalisation is, as the European Union experience teaches us, the basis also for economic prosperity and integration. And I know how important it is for the citizens of the entire Balkan region. So I think that nobody can underestimate the interest that we all have in that process to resume and to resume fruitfully and respectfully.
PM Edi Rama: As much as I am concerned, in 2017, negotiations and the solution that was found has been entirely and totally up to the parties in Albania. Of course, our friends and partners have been concerned and interested in helping the communication, or in enabling the communication between the both sides, yet the decision-making has been entirely ours. This time, I can say two things. First, I don’t see anyone being concerned as they did in 2017. Of course, this is not because of the fact that what has happened is not a cause for concern, but because of the fact that what has happened surpasses all the limits of something endurable in terms of the democratic framework and coexistence. And as much as I am concerned, it is high time for us to stick to the system, stick to the path of what has been determined by the Constitution and the law, because it seems like that solutions to overcome a crisis that has been created to just to get something out of the solution have not helped us to become stronger and grow faster from the constitutional point of view both as a society and at a political level. Therefore, the solutions of that kind have been already tried in the past. As the matter of fact, 2017 was the maximum a majority can ever do for the opposition in order to ensure an inclusive and lasting solution. But indeed it didn’t work.
So now we have the system. Whoever wishes to stick to the system is fine, and whoever wishes to resign from the system, they have their own choice to make. However, there is no chance of whatsoever for them to not allow the others not to stay in the system.
As for the so-called plot to divide Kosovo and secretly create a new world map, as a matter of fact it reminds me of the expression that before Facebook was invented, the fools were known only in their households. Nowadays we live in a world which from this point of view is unfortunate. And the advice on a manual of Nazi agitation, saying “if you really want to make a lie sound true, make it sound unbelievable,” is today widely used on daily basis to assault the opponents, to attack people, massacre individuals and personalities at all levels possible by precisely taking advantage of Facebook and the opportunity to bend the people’s ears and confuse the whole world by fabricating mindboggling lies and dangerous stupidities. I don’t want to take too much of the time and comment on this matter, but to conclude I would like to state this; If there are as many as fools to believe that a process which includes many states and not only two states, but all states of the world, parliaments, political parties and whole societies, and referendum votes at the end, if you believe that this can be done secretly by a handful of people and the whole process go unseen, then I believe this is the end of the world. But I believe quite the contrary. I believe that every reasonable person, every Albanian with a common wisdom and the head over their shoulders, understand this is wholly just a lie that has become unbelievable, so that it can be sold out in the territory of the online craze.
For more, I will commit and be ready to clarify more whenever given the opportunity, but from what I said this far I think this is enough for today. Once again I would like to thank Federica, I want to thank all those in the Commission working on the Progress Report on Albania, and I am confident that we will receive a positive and unconditional recommendation. So the remainder is the daily continuous struggle to convince as much as we can those who afterwards will make the political decision, no longer based on what Albania has accomplished, but on what they haven’t achieved in the European Parliament polls, or what they are seeking to achieve in the next elections in their own countries.
Thank you!
