Rama: Europe Is the Religion of Albanians

With EU membership, Rama stressed, “we will build a bridge between the past and our future”.

Speaking of the importance of Albania's integration into the European Union, Rama said that “for us and other Western Balkan countries is a matter of life and death”.

After so many years of pain and anxiety, Europe determines our future. As you may be aware, Albania has had the most frightening communist regime in Europe and not too far away in time, we have experienced some of the bloodiest wars in Europe during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia or in Kosovo”, Rama said.

Asked about “conston” that will have EU membership of Serbia or Albania, and doubts that create such a step when an analogy is made with the situation created with Greece, Rama said, “this is not my problem, but it is a problem to be solved by German and British politicians”.

Your associates have not experienced wars of three generations. Your societies are somehow disconnected from the harsh realities of the world beyond the EU. From an economic point of view, your societies are in good shape, and that may be why Europeans forget how lucky they are”, Rama said.

While in terms of the advantages it will have for Germany and the European Union, Albania's EU membership, Prime Minister Rama said that “would not bother those who do not want Albania to become an EU member, as it is a long road for us towards the EU”.

“Saying in the words of French President Macro: Europe, first needs integration before it begins its expansion. Yes, the EU needs some reforms. And we also need to undertake reforms in our country. But we hope that our roads will be united someday. Albania and the Western Balkans are of crucial importance to Europe's peace and security. We are a grey zone in Europe and that should change”, he stressed.

Regarding Albania's progress, Rama said that “many things have changed, but frankly, that actually depends on how you see the situation”. If you think about where we started, we've come a long way to Albania. But if you judge where we want to be, then there's still a way to go. Our transformation should become more stable”, he said.

Our judicial reform, Rama, followed, including constitutional changes, is transforming almost everything today. Our judges and prosecutors are being monitored, their financial source and their professional past are being verified. Many senior officials have lost their jobs, and this will clear our judiciary system”, the prime minister stressed.

But, according to Prime Minister Rama, this is not enough. “We want to have a fair and efficient judicial system that can fight corruption and organised crime. We have the same approach in the education sector. We closed 18 private universities because they failed to meet modern standards. Furthermore, we have introduced a system of dual education and reformed our financial market. This is how we are building a new foundation for our society”, he stressed.

Regarding the fight against organised crime and narcotics, Rama said it has been a bitter struggle and we have blocked the root reasons for this problem, especially the cultivating of cannabis, which was a serious problem.

It's been a tough fight. We have blocked the root reasons for this problem, especially the cultivating of cannabis, which was a serious problem. This has been going on since 1991 and nobody cared. Albania's south at the time resembled a small Colombia. A safe haven for drug dealers. My predecessor in the prime minister post left these people in the south in peace for a long time. He said they suffered a lot during communism. We, on the other hand, attacked them. There were cops killed and wounded, many prisoners. But criminal networks responded by trying to buy police with high bribes. And our police was the one with the highest average age in the entire region, the lowest training and lowest pay. We had to review everything. And I think we made it. Nothing has been found, however, during the former campaign's search, and most of the controls have been done by Italian aircraft”, the Executive Chief said.

Likewise, Rama stressed that the Albanian economy is improving in the overall plan.

Finally, Prime Minister Rama also commented on the situation in the Balkans, which he described as “as a problematic situation”, but which according to him, “does not threaten security in the region”.

If you compare it to situation 5 or 10 years ago, things are moving forward. Montenegro is not on a bad track, Macedonia is changing very quickly. Despite all problems, Serbia is developing and is becoming more attractive to investments. And then, Kosovo comes, which has been hard times. Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia remains difficult, there is no real progress. While the situation in Bosnia is very complicated. There was a lot of hope in the late 1990s, but it's gone. Everyone's stuck in that situation. That is why the EU is important, so that the momentum can return to these” talks, Rama said.