Former Italian Prime Minister: Rugova was unable to declare Kosovo's independence

D'Alema at the international conference “Rugova and West” recalled some very important moments of Kosovo liberation.

He said the early illness prevented Rugova from declaring independence on February 17th 2008.

I have good memories of the efforts Rugova made for Kosovo's final status. I was in the government, not as prime minister, but as deputy minister, and foreign affairs minister. And Italy was chosen as a non-permanent United Nations country and Ban Ki Moon at the time had set December 10 as the deadline for negotiations to end. And in December it was Italy's turn to lead the presidency of the Security Council. He personally wanted to attend the session to call for support for independence. But that was impossible by Serbia's high nationalism, which did not accept the facts, but could not indefinitely postpone this”, he said.

The former Italian prime minister stressed that today we are away from the Balkan goal and stability aimed at Ibrahim Rugova.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Ambassador of the United States of America Jeffrey Havenier and many other important personalities are attending this conference.