Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered at the activity held today on the occasion of Europe Day:

 

Hello to everyone!

A special greeting to the Ambassador of Great Britain! I hope this is not the last celebration of Great Britain in the European Union! Another special greeting goes to the Ambassador of the European Union, who is not here. I believe her absence is totally justified because the Ambassador is surely following up the journey of the Judiciary Reform draft which is being discussed by the Committee today.

I wish very much that the Committee of the Judiciary Reform will vote in principle on Europe Day the draft in order to pave the way for discussing within the framework set out in principle all the sections of the draft of a historic reform, which will actually take us from this transit area to the flight of negotiations, so that we can finally sit the airport of the European Union.

I take this opportunity to tell all those who are concerned with a provision of the draft, that there will be absolutely no amnesty for anyone who has escaped justice in all these years. This means that no exception will be allowed, and I believe that at this point it will not be difficult for all the parties to find a convergence point.

The provision I am talking about, which has been subject of discussion and about which many people were rightly concerned because it appeared in the form of amnesty, shows that even our friends and partners who are very willing to support and help us are fallible as well.

Today is the day to talk about Europe. I believe that this May 9 is special for us because we are at a key moment and we are closer than ever before to the opening of negotiations with the European Union. We are closer than ever before to creating a concrete opportunity to move together on the path of negotiations which will be extremely difficult, but which is the only path in order for us to become a member country with full rights in the European Union.

We are proud that, after we gave Albania the opportunity to obtain the candidate status after a long and unjustified delay due simply and only to the unwillingness for reforms of the previous government, today, thanks to the willingness for reforms, we are very close to the opening of negotiations.

It is be a step that in this respect would make our governing mandate an historic one, in addition to taking our country to a new stage in relation to both itself and the European Union.

I do not want to expand any further. This is a long Europe Day which begins today, with this initiative of the Ministry and the Minister of Integration, and will continue in Shkodra where we will open the National Museum of Photography to honour a dynasty of Europeans who in Shkodra materialized in photography the visual memory of many generations. To conclude, we will attend all together the celebrations organized by the European Commission. It will be a long day, but everything done with the European Union cannot be but long. The European Union works on long terms, and we are already used to this.

It is important that we don’t get tired, that we don’t get annoyed and spoiled like some French, some Dutch, some British, who were born in a peaceful Europe and take peace for granted once and for all, and forget that this is the longest period of peace Europe has ever had in its history, and this is due first of all to the European Union.

Therefore the European Union is a creature that deserves criticism, but beyond all of the criticism it deserves the greatest admiration as the most extraordinary creature ever imagined by man, and as the most extraordinary political and human project on a peaceful coexistence among peoples who have different traditions, speak different languages, belong to the most varied cultures, and are all part of Europe’s common body.

So, let’s feel once again lucky to be in the heart of Europe and to have a well-defined horizon, which is the horizon of the European Union. I am telling this first of all to the young people because today, in a such a messy time and in such a messy world, they are young and are lucky to be born in this continent, they have a privilege that many young people in other parts of the world don’t have – the privilege of having a great chance to realize a big shared aspiration, on behalf of a great dream which is the dream of European Albania and that of the concrete materialization of our European belonging, a belonging which is not only spiritual, cultural and geographical, but is also a belonging to the European Union table where, we hope very much that when we sit at that table, I started with Britain and will conclude with Britain, we will have it next to us for it would be an unjustified absence.