Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is paying an official visit to Italy, met with the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi at Palazzo Chigi today. Following their meeting, they issued joint statements to the press:
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi: Good afternoon everyone! I would like to thank Prime Minister Rama for his visit, for which I am immensely happy.
A little while ago we had a bilateral meeting and a very interesting conversation that made us get to know each other a little more. We had met before, but we haven’t had the opportunity to talk in person for some time. I would like to thank Prime Minister Rama for the incredible gesture of solidarity he and Albania have demonstrated with Italy in the darkest period of the pandemic.
Italian-Albanian relations do not need many words. It is a long-standing, very strong and very successful relationship. Italy’s Albanian community is a very large community and obviously very well integrated.
A large number of Albanian students attend and benefit a lot from our universities. Italian enterprises in Albania are really too many, both under Italian ownership only, as well as those under joint ownership, which means that in this sector too, the categories of entrepreneurs are close to one another.
Italy and Albania are also cooperating in agriculture, tourism, services and the ecological transition now.
Italy is close to Albania on everything, in every inch of its foreign policy in terms of Albania’s integration and accession into the European Union. Italy is following closely and taking notice of the alignment of Albanian standards with those of the European Union will continue to do so and has done most recently.
It is crucial for both Italy and Albania, for stability in the Balkans, because Albania’s EU accession process would not happen alone, but also by considering the accession of other Balkan countries.
The judiciary and security cooperation is also progressing very well and we talked about that today. There are various initiatives on which the two countries will work and on this day in particular, Prime Minister Rama will sign at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the participation in the Joint Albanian-Italian Economic Commission. In short, I can simply say that Italy will give convincing and full support to Albania.
PM Edi Rama: Thank you! It is always an honor to be in this palace, but this time it is not only an honor to meet the Italian Prime Minister, but also a privilege to meet Mario Draghi and I want to thank him for this privilege because it is an opportunity to learn, talk and discuss not only current issues, but also ways to project the future. We also discussed European integration and ways to open a faster lane so that Albania integrates faster than other Western Balkan countries when it comes to certain categories, including youth, which would be very important if the European university systems were to integrate with the university systems in the Western Balkan countries or the European agricultural systems with our agricultural systems, the research and innovation systems with our systems of research and innovation and of course in other areas, without forgetting the ecological transition, which is a common challenge, but it does not make sense to have two separate lanes, one of the European Union and another one of the Western Balkans for different reasons and for a very fundamental reason, which the Prime Minister already underlined.
Everything happening in the Western Balkans, be it for better or worse, has an immediate effect on Europe, because it would suffice thinking that the European Union is the only geographical creature with both an internal and external border and six countries practically living at the heart of the European Union are actually outside the bloc’s external border.
I was also able to ask the Prime Minister for an accelerated process of pension rights recognition. There are many Albanians, who work and pay their insurance contributions to the Italian state for years.
As the Prime Minister said, we also discussed justice and security cooperation and I think there is more room for both countries to foster more youth participation and youth empowerment projects, attract a larger number of young people towards decent and quality education, like the one internationally known as the Italian Police Detective Academy, and the Italian School of Magistracy for the rule of law and judiciary issues.
A lot has been done. Italy has played a key role throughout this not an easy transition period from an isolated dictatorial regime to a functioning democracy.
We would never be able to express through words all the gratitude to this country, to all centre-left and centre-right governments that never changed their attitude towards Albania.
We now can do a lot more, because it is not only Albanians living and working in Italy, but also a lot of Italian citizens, from entrepreneurs to students of retired people who now live in Albania. The future will bring us increasingly closer with each other.
Italy is of course a big and economically powerful country, a very developed country. Albania is a small developing country, but we need to find ways to strengthen ties, because it is something that does good to both countries and we very much hope that the Prime Minister will have the opportunity to finally visit Albania and after we together with all the authorities host a joint Albania-Italy week to celebrate everything connecting, although to do it perfectly 7 days are not enough, but we would need 365 days.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi: Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you also for your perfect Italian.
PM Edi Rama: I am grateful to my grandmother for that.
–PM Draghi, you discussed enlargement in the entire Balkan region and the region’s stability. However, taking notice of the pressing emigration issue that affects whole Europe, do you think such a situation could slow down the negotiations or could influence the process? The Polish Prime Minister has called for an extraordinary meeting of the European Council ahead of the December summit due to the situation on the border between Belarus and Poland.
I would also like to ask Prime Minister Rama precisely about this issue. What do you think about Europe and the largely commented walls in the European Union?
PM Edi Rama: Thank you! I had to learn it personally the hard way that the process of European integration of the countries that have yet to become EU members hinges on the internal dynamics of different EU members, while countries like Italy or others, have never been engaged in a any internal discussion and they have never conditioned these issues to their very clear position on enlargement. Certain EU member states have followed a different path, but as the legendary Donald Trump used to say, “it is what it is”, we can’t change that, but what we can do is keep doing the same, because the European integration of Albania or the Balkans is not something they have forced us to do.
We are not doing it because we have been asked by Berlin, Paris or Rome to do so. It is something we owe the younger future generations and it is part of Albania’s destiny. It has always been the dream of us all and the dream of our founding fathers that have always been looking towards the other shore of the sea. So, we will continue to do what we are doing. Italy is an absolutely irreplaceable partner in this, with all the knowhow, with all the assistance it provides us to better understand, to move faster on the right path, just like other partner and friendly countries. It then takes just a little more patience, enlargement is the destiny of the European Union if the European Union really wants to deliver and further perfect the project of the founding fathers, it goes through its history which is not a very easy one.
Italian PM Mario Draghi: As the Prime Minister Rama rightly noted, the Western Balkans integration into the European Union is not something depending on circumstantial causes; it is the future of the EU, and therefore what is now happening in Belarus has no impact on this process. In any case, Italy does not think it should influence this process and I don’t believe other countries think that way. I have not been notified of any extraordinary meetings about this, I do not know if such a meeting will take place, we will discuss this. Immigrants are now being used as a foreign policy instrument.
– Will Italy take any steps if Bulgaria refuses to lift its veto on the EU integration of Albania and North Macedonia? The second question to the Prime Minister Rama, will Albania demand to decouple from North Macedonia if Bulgaria continues to block the integration process?
Italian PM Mario Draghi: Again, I am referring to PM Rama’s statements. The integration of the Western Balkans countries with the EU is a process that sees all the countries in the region all together. We should not forget that North Macedonia’s integration is also important. It is too early to name concrete steps that Italy would take. These difficulties will be overcome gradually for the EU integration to go on. However, I’m generally optimistic, but these are things – and I do not know whether you remember, but I think you don’t because you are too young – but the first enlargement of the European Union to many countries, now considered stable partners, actually took too many years. This is not something that is done by answering foreign policy issues, contingents, the immigration issues or international accidents, but it is a long-term strategy defining the European Union’s identity.
PM Edi Rama: I would like to answer in Albanian. First of all, it is obvious that the process of convening the first intergovernmental conference between Albania and the European Union and North Macedonia and the EU depends neither on Albania nor on North Macedonia. Given the current circumstances, the process hinges on a veto imposed by Bulgaria and Albania, in this case, is the weirdest collateral damage one can ever imagine. On the other hand, it is not a matter for concern whether a date has been set or not. What matters most is that we should make utmost efforts to be prepared for the process to begin, and it is up to the European Union to deliver on its pledge and find the way to keep its word, because we should have started the process two years ago and if that does not happen, it is up to the European Union to assume its responsibility. Put it simply, we have delivered on our homework, we haven’t done them for the European Union, but we have done them for ourselves, we will continue to do them for ourselves, not for the EU and as soon as the roadblock will be removed, we will be ready to sit at the table.
It is too early to consider decoupling Albania and North Macedonia, because elections were held most recently in Bulgaria and we need to wait for the new government to be formed, we should wait for the new Bulgaria’s President to be elected and see what sort of position the new Bulgarian government and the new parliamentary majority will hold and of course we would also see the outcome and effects of all the efforts already underway by all member states to convince Bulgaria, because it is not only Italy, but a large group of countries, including France and the Netherlands too, that are at the forefront of the effort to convince Bulgaria to lift its veto.
Thank you!
