Statement by Prime Minister Edi Rama and the EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, in Brussels:

EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn: We can confirm Albania has fulfilled its obligations. We had an agreement based on a unanimous decision of all member states about five key priorities and we had already made our assessment last year. We have repeated our assessment and again, just like last year, we have given this year a full recommendation to start the negotiations. And in case it doesn’t happen today, because it is the agenda of the European Council, this is not because of any failure of Albania and its government. It is an issue of European internal dynamics and I think this is important to be understood by the citizens of Albania. I can only urge the government to continue all the ongoing reform efforts, because this is in the interest of the Albanian citizens. The reforms are not done to pleas us. If it is about the European Commission, we are extremely dedicated to continue our joint efforts in order to improve living conditions in the region and Albania in particular. We will do everything and I hope that as soon as internal EU issues are resolved this would have a very positive impact also on the region’s integration and further development.

PM Edi Rama: Commissioner Hahn stated it quite clearly. We have done and delivered on what we were asked for. But despite the fact of what we have done and what we should do, we are in a situation when the European Council is discussing what the family members want or do not want to do for their own family, because it is already known that an important family member wants the whole family to adopt another approach to this process.

This means that, on one hand, we must clearly understand this situation and, on the other, continue the reform process, because, as the Commissioner put it, we are not doing (reform efforts) because are asked by Brussels, London, Paris, or Berlin, but we do them because we need to make sure our children inherit a European Albania with democratic institutions, with an institutional rule of law state and an economy up to European Union standards.