Joint press conference of Prime Minister Rama and Commissioner Hahn following the Fifth Round of the “Albania – EU High Level Dialogue”:

First of all I would like to publicly welcome the Commissioner on his first visit as Commissioner in Albania. Also, I wish a successful common journey in view of the progress of Albania and the region on the path of European integration.

That said, I want to express gratitude to the Commissioner for his personal direct involvement in continuing the dialogue and for his clear commitment to strongly support Albania in this process of historical significance for us.

Of course, this was the first opportunity I had to show the Commissioner a sincere appreciation for European Commission ‘s ongoing commitment to the enlargement process in general and to Albania and the region’s European perspective in particular. This meeting was actually a confirmation of  this mutual engagement

On our side, we have emphasised the results of state-building reforms and confirmed our firm willingness to deepen them according to the five key priorities set out in this stage of Albania’s path towards the European Union. In our view, these five priorities are an irreplaceable instrument of incitement.

Let me underline the Government’s intense commitment to domestic reforms, but also to having an active role in strengthening the European dimension of the region, which has taken a new dimension thanks to the process opened in Berlin, at the meeting organized by Chancellor Merkel, along with prime ministers of Southeast Europe countries.

Work on the five priority has been intensified and some important developments have occurred since the last meeting, both from the legislative point of view by improving the regulatory and institutional framework, and also in consolidating the balance that so far has shown to be progressive with a focus on fighting crime and corruption.

We informed the Commissioner on the current stage of the justice reform, as a structured and comprehensive process that gives us since today the guarantee of a product that will close a long era of transition characterized by systemic decay of the justice system, and which will establish the institutional foundations of a European justice system based on the rule of law.

I expressed to the Commissioner my conviction that this is the deepest and most inclusive process, where the energy consumption required can be compared only with the process of writing the new Constitution of the Republic of Albania. For this reason, we asked the Commission to consider, through the Commissioner, the compliance of this process with a positive precedent of Montenegro, where the opening of Chapter 23 and then Chapter 24 of the negotiations, in the form of a conditional process, led to moving forward to a successful negotiation process.

We have confirmed our will for a comprehensive process with the opposition. Even today we had the pleasure to have a meeting where the opposition spoke more than the government, which is in our view, an expression of our need to listen as much as possible to the opposition, given the deficit created after a considerable period of abandonment of all spaces of cross-political debate and dialogue.

Even the decision of the Assembly on creating the National Council of European Integration, whose chairmanship we have willingly entrusted to the opposition, is proof of our commitment to have a political dialogue, and more than a commitment, this is proof of our need to have the opposition by our side, meaning in front of us, in order to walk side by side with the opposition, having as much interaction as possible and creating the conditions to listen to the opposition as much as possible.

Finally, I want to emphasize that it is obviously clear to us that we are not living in Europe’s best politics time to talk about enlargement. However, this is the region’s most delicate time to not push the enlargement process consistently and decisively further. And for this reason, we look at negotiations between Albania and the European Union not as another step in a process, but as the process itself.

Thank you Commissioner for your visit to Albania and for your two-day stay here. I hope that this meeting that took stock of the job done since last September, has made you more optimistic and at the same time, this visit has given you more reasons to return in Albania soon .

 

Answers – Questions:

-Mr. Prime Minister, yesterday the opposition presented a platform whose changes require an intervention in the Constitution. At what degree is the majority ready to intervene in the Constitution with regard to the decriminalization of the Parliament? Thank you!

Thank you, but I haven’t seen what the opposition has presented. Today I saw the opposition and tomorrow, maybe, we will see what the opposition has presented, and then we will answer once we have an idea of what it is about.

 

-What are the reforms that, according to you, deserve more attention? You did mention justice, but from what we have seen the pace hasn’t been that fast.

To answer on the progress of the judicial reform, I will refer to the Commissioner’s speech according to which the quality of the process is very important. Of course, for us, not for the European Union, but for us speed is also important.

So, we are very confident that the judicial reform is going through a quality and fast process. Likewise, we are very confident that in the fall, we will give the Commission everything as required by the 5 priorities, if we refer to written assignments. For this, I asked the Commissioner to grant a stable and predictable process, without additional requirements along the way, but allow Albania to deliver results one by one according to defined tasks within the framework mutually agreed.

Of course, I want to believe strongly the Commissioner’s words that the situation within the European Union and particularly in some countries massively against the enlargement, as opinion polls show, will not be an obstacle. However, what remains crucial for us, regardless of the situation in the European Union or what part of the decision will be conditioned by the present situation in the European Union, is that we are in the process and will modernize our country in every step. Because for us, as have said since the first day we sat at the Government’s table, European Integration is neither a trip to Brussels nor sending in Brussels letters of the laws we pass, but it is building European Albania here. Building a country that functions like any other European Union member country, here, in our country, for our people. To do this, we enjoy the irreplaceable assistance of the integration process, with every instrument that this process makes available to countries that want to be innovate and integrate.

So, at this moment, our job is to implement consequentially our project of European Albania and consequentially fulfil every task assigned by the Commission on the 5 priorities. Then, of course, the rest is up to the Commission, the Member Countries and to the leadership in member countries. And it remains to be seen how much will be decided by the leadership and how much by the polls.

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Earlier Prime Minister Edi Rama met with EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn who is in Tirana for the meeting on the “Albania-EU High Level Dialogue”.