Rama replays for the Austrian newspaper: Europe Is the Religion of Albanians

Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama continues to be a protagonist of foreign media on the issue of integration. This time, he has provided an interview for the Austrian newspaper “Kurier”.

Asked about comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who says the EU must be reformed, Rama says Albania wants the recipe.

“Europe must change and Balkan countries must change, I understand that. But what we're looking for is a recipe. The opening of the talks is a recipe for new therapy to heal the wounds and problems of the past”.

Rama says Albania is doing what is required of Europe.

“Now they tell us we have to do more to fight crime and corruption. Is there a better way to do this than to build a completely new system of justice? In Albania it has not been a problem to arrest people, but to be punished”, it has expressed, broadcast “AbcNews”

Asked whether Albania has an alternative to the EU, Rama says people in Europe have not experienced war. They believe war is a white film on the screen.

But we've experienced it. We've got 500,000 refugees in a country of 2.5 million people. We know what war is, so Europe is important to us. Europe is our religion. Even during the Ottoman Empire, there was an expression on us: Our sun rises in the West”

Asked whether the EU could accept Western Balkan countries to avoid Russian influence, the Albanian prime minister says this should not be a dilemma between more reforms or more caviar.

This doesn't matter, they can offer us as much as they want. We have been told Communism over 50 years: The sky is red, life will be wonderful. Progress is great, but we still have a lot to do. Now we have the blue sky, we're told life will be wonderful, we've made a lot of progress, but there's still a lot to do. We know that, but the process must be fair. We are waiting outside the door and knocking for years to enter”, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said.