Prime Minister Edi Rama is attending the “GLOBSEC 2023” Forum that is currently being held in Bratislava. At the beginning, Rama spoke about how are treated the members of the Union and the states of the Western Balkans for the same situations.
In the end, Rama said that the states of the Western Balkans must get something more and the relationship between the Western Balkans and the EU must change fundamentally if you don’t want the Western Balkans to go backwards again.
“We feel honored to speak at this global conference. Let me mention some data to help the discussion and give a proper answer.
Let me start with what happened in Europe, in response to the great crisis that hit Europe and us.
This explains the big gap between the countries of Europe and those of the Western Balkans. Through two very large packages 2 years ago, for the member states and over 600 billion, while for the countries of the Western Balkans it gave 1 billion.
Secondly, EU grants to member states in South-Eastern Europe will be 11 times larger compared to the Western Balkans.
Thirdly, IPAS funds, what they receive, are 90% technical assistance and 10% investments, while EU countries receive over 90% investments and then 1% economic assistance.
The last point I want to mention with figures is that the funds provided by the EU budget, between the 6 countries of the Western Balkans and the EU member states, are 138 euros per citizen in BP and 4570 euros for EU citizens.
This is the situation we find ourselves in and this is why we think this is a life and death issue for us, so we agree with what Ursula said.
Negotiations will take time and normally there should be no rush, but we have to get something more and something has to change fundamentally in the relationship between the Western Balkans and the EU if they don’t want the Western Balkans to go backwards again.
/abcbews.al
