Prime Minister Rama participated today in the EU–Western Balkans Summit, which brought together the leaders of the European Union and the countries of the Western Balkans, reaffirming the strategic partnership and the shared commitment to advancing the region’s European integration process.
The Summit also serves as a platform for exchanging views on the common challenges faced by the region and Europe, as well as for strengthening cooperation in support of security, stability, and sustainable development.
Upon his arrival at the Summit, Prime Minister Rama addressed the attending media.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: The beautiful German press, yes, tell me.
-Would you be happy with gradual integration, first the single market and the rest?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, I’ve been saying this for a long time. Finally, it’s being heard, but it’s not enough now. I believe that Europe for itself, first and foremost, should be bolder, should keep the merit-based process, should go in the direction of gradual, but should find the guts for a new Helmut Kohl moment. Right?
When the wall went down, the great guy didn’t say to the East Germans, “Now you have 35 chapters to go through before we are together.” He said, “We are together, and then we will help you go through. So, if you want to send a very strong message to the world and to give some great energy to itself, should say like we are today all around the table we should always be around the table but everyone with its own status until we become full members. So, I think it’s easier, that’s why it’s more complicated to be understood.
-Why do you say it’s too late. Is this now because of Ukraine?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It’s not too late, no no, i didn’t say it’s too late; I said it’s not enough.
-What do you think about this process in the Western Balkans?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, what we have to do on our side is to give them some courage to push harder. And then it’s up to them.
-So, you talked about a Kohl moment, but what about a Merz moment? What do you think about?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Chancellor Merz has spoken about different statuses. This was to start the conversation; this was not the end of the conversation, and already the conversation has developed with the new document, the French German paper, so hopefully my two big friends and the respected leaders of Germany and France will find more stamina to be more like Kohl and Mitterrand.
-Do you think Germany wants to leave you and your country waiting?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, the idea or the argument of danger is over. I heard it for many years. I saw it, because I am now getting old, you know. So, I saw some of them coming and leaving. And I’m still here, and they have left, after having said that, no, it’s dangerous. We want you to come in. We’ll bring you in. In fact, they went out. So, it’s not a waiting room. It’s more integration. That’s why I say the EU should now find the guts to have a Helmut Kohl moment. So, to say, all together around the table, like today, always, but everyone must fulfil their own work, their own duties, to get more from the table.
You know, you don’t tell the kids to stay with the neighbours until you are ready to come and eat with us, right? Because then one of the kids gets to know a Russian gangster in the neighbourhood, another kid starts to like Chinese dolls and so forth. No, you keep the kids all together.
-When will Albania join the EU?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: When will Albania join the EU? There are three things you can’t predict. Three. Right? God, sex, and the EU.
-Are there any demands regarding the resort protest going on in the country?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: There are no demands to be discussed because there is no yet project approved, right? So first we need to have the project, then to see the project, then to discuss the project. But we can’t discuss something that does not exist, but that is being presented for overall the social media through a hybrid war against Albania through false narratives like the project is not the project but it’s something cooked between me and Bibi Netanyahu through Jared Kushner to bring the Palestinians in Zvernec and I think the Western media should be much more careful because facts matter and should always matter because there is no project because there is no reason to worry as far as there is no project and because the top architects among the best in the world the top in engineers landscape artists are engaged and it’s not the aim to do some disruption with nature but the aim is to make something unique that will be amazing for Albanians, but it will be also a gift of Albania to all of you in Europe.
We would like to have a new Helmut Kohl moment. The great leader of Germany did not come out after the war to say to the Eastern Germans: “Now we have 35 chapters to fulfil before you sit around the table with us.” But he said, “We are all around the table.” And then, of course, years are needed. So, we should always be around the table, like today, not once a year. Everyone with their own baggage of homework,
And then everyone married based becomes full member. But a full member in terms of what you can take for Europe. But right away full member in terms of what you give to Europe. Otherwise, It’s like telling the kids: “Until you grow up, you stay with the neighbours.” And then a kid gets to know a Russian gangster, another kid gets fascinated by Chinese dolls, and then when they grow up, they are not ready anymore to come to their parents.
-What is the government doing to reassure the environmentalist, for their concerns for environment, flamingos?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, first, this is not about environmentalists. This is about, or let’s say it’s not only about, environmentalists. This is about, first, a hybrid war.
Enemies of the country, we know them. Everyone who knows our story knows them, the Iranians that have been engaged in cyber-attacks for a long time against us, that have done so much damage to us that obliged us to fuel the narrative that the Iranian project is not what it is told, but it’s an agreement between Bibi Netanyahu and me, cooked by Jared Kushner, to bring the Palestinians from Gaza to Albania. This is one of the narratives. And it has a lot of traction.
You have seen a lot of fake videos with hundreds of thousands of people chanting “Israel, go home”. It’s all fake. There is nothing like that in real Albania. And it’s a shame for those who do all these things.
On the other hand, genuinely, some well-meaning people are worried. And I told them, and I told them, you should not have to worry because the project is not ready. We don’t have the project.
So, to reassure what?
We were the first to set the standards for the project to come, and we’ll wait for the project. So, there is nothing to worry about if you have not increased the users of the Albanian digital ecosystem on the first day of the attack. It’s a hybrid war.
