Rama: If we join the EU, the right time to deliver staff

The United Kingdom plan for sending asylum seekers rejected to “Return” in third countries indicates that Britain after Brexit is “in a desperate location”. Thus has Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stated in an interview for the British newspaper “The Guardian”.

In his first interview with international media after leading the Socialist Party towards a fourth consecutive historic mandate, Edi Rama said the idea for Britain to look for places to abandon immigrants” would be unimaginable a decade ago.

But, he added, it coincided with the change of public disks in Britain after Brexit, where “things totally unacceptable, totally ridiculous, totally embarrassing” were normalised, followed A2 CNN, broadcast Periscopi.

The scheme of the “return centres”, proclaimed last month by Keir Starmer during a visit to Albania, envisions establishing centres in a third country where asylum demands for persons who have exhausted all legal routes to the United Kingdom would be processed.

“is one of those things that 10 years ago would not have been imagined... that Britain would seek places to leave the immigrants”, Rama from Tirana said. The fact that today is not only imagined but also happening is not because Keir Starmer or [Rish] Sunnak is doing something scandalous; it's because the country (Britani) is in a very desperate position”.

Rama, known for his direct and often against the current, writes The Guardian ʹ expressed concern about the level of public discourse in Britain. As a devoted Anglo - Englishman, he said that it was difficult for him to accept this reality.

“80% of what is said, written, or accepted as a normal part of the disk in Britain today, are things that [before Brex] would be totally unacceptable, ridiculous, shameful”, he said.

Relations between the United Kingdom and Albania were strained during previous conservative governments, which often cited Albanian immigrants as part of the boat crossing crisis in the Channel of La Manshi.

Starmer's May first-ever visit by a British prime minister was intended to establish a new foundation in bilateral relations. While in Tirana, the Labus leaders said talks were under way “with a number of countries” to establish the centres. But, in a statement that was seen as a slight rebuke for the guest, Rama said at a joint press conference that Albania would not participate in this scheme.

Wanting to clarify the issue in the interview, Rama said Starmer, a very kind and pleasant <x0 man”, had not made the request publicly and that he was not the first British leader to have raised the subject in private. According to Rama, his answer had always been the same: “I've been clear on this since Boris Johnson and Rich asked me to... I've always said no to”.

Rama acknowledged that Albania had agreed to a scheme similar to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melon, but according to him it was different because of the very special <x0-companying” between the two countries. That agreement envisions stopping sea immigrants and sending most of them, not to Italy, but to a waiting centre in Albania, where their asylum demands will be considered. However, the agreement has been blocked so far due to legal challenges.

Since the fall of the Stalinist regime in 1991, Italy has been standing near Albania, Rama said. As a result, Albanians “have a weak spot” for Italy.

We're actually a nation divided into two independent states... Italy has been there for us at every dark moment since the day we left hell of being North Korea of Europe”, he added. So when Italy asks us for something, we say yes, point”.

Rama's stance comes at a moment of new self-confidence for Albania, among Europe's poorest states, which is taking steps that once seemed impossible towards EU membership, writes The Guardian. At a significantly changed pace and tone, which he attributes to the new geopolitical-led geopoliticalism” following the invasion of Ukraine from Russia, membership negotiations have accelerated, while Brussels is finally trying to embrace the Western Balkans -- a region that Moscow views as part of its sphere of influence.

Rama notes a similar effect in the EU by the new White House resident and is “100% convinced that Donald Trump's victory is a good thing for Europe”. He said Trump's victory had awakened Europe from hibernation and had brought back a disturbing “ ” that the world needed.

When Trump says God saved him because he had a plan for America, he says only half the truth. God saved him because he had a plan for Europe to wake him up”, Rama said.

Later this year, the Albanian prime minister -- once a painter and basketball player -- will start a <x0m-long thank-you” for diaspora communities, which for the first time could vote in the last elections, helping achieve plebiscious victory. In Greece alone, over 500,000 Albanians are believed to live. Rama's hope is to draw them back “because now our salaries are very close to those of Greece and this is their” place.

However, the leader of the Socialist Party also has criticism. Corruption charges in Albanian society are widespread, as are charges of increased authoritarianism quite long-lived prime minister since dictator Enver Hoxha, but Brussels supporters and Democrats call these claims ridiculous.

A former EU minister has said “Eddie's bigger than life itself. His problem is he's too big for his country and I'm not talking about the length of”, writes The Guardian.

If Albania achieves the goal for membership, Rama said it would be the necessary and most wonderful <x0m> to hand over staff”. It would be a personal achievement, but also a helping to make “Europe less boring and more solar”. /Periscopi/