Prime Minister Edi Rama held a press conference together with his Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovacevski, after a meeting between them in Skopje, as part of the Balkan tour of the Prime Minister of Albania.
Rama said that it was a very useful meeting and discussion in the conditions when Albania will host the Berlin Process and the goal is for this summit to mark some concrete progress.
Prime Minister emphasized the fact that the gap between EU member stated and the Western Balkans in terms of financial support is incomparable.
He stated North Macedonia and Albania have e meaningful balance in relation to EU, not only in terms of reforms but also of alignment with EU.
Part of Rama’ speech
We had a very useful meeting and discussion in the conditions when Albania will host the Berlin Process in Tirana and where my goal is for this summit to mark some concrete progress for which we are working with the office in Berlin and discussing with EC in Brussels.
It is a time when it has become very clear that the gap between the EU member states and our countries in terms of financial support from the EU is incomparable to our need and the necessity for Europe as a whole to be more compact.
This is the reason why for some time we have started to push in this direction, cooperating with each other as countries of the Balkans, especially with Macedonia.
In order to advance the same goal we share, supplying our partners with concrete data.
Moreover, the experiences we have gone through prevent us from acting as if nothing has happened. I mean Covid, when EU abandoned us and where we were forced to look for vaccines in third countries.
But I also mean the period after, when we found support in the EU.
There are many common challenges that require a common approach to citizens that cannot be first-hand or second-hand. What our neighbors get from EU is unmatched by our opportunities to make available to their people.
Albania and Macedonia have a very meaningful balance in relation to the EU, not in terms of the reforms that led to the opening of negotiations, but in terms of alignment with EU.
This is a value that not everyone sympathizes 100%. The good news is that the commission, as stated by Von der Leyen, is working in this direction.
We will have another formal meeting in Tirana, to specifically discuss the plan. We need this plan, we need this support and we deserve it as countries in the middle of Europe to not be seen as those who have to do the tasks, but also as those who contribute.
EU now needs us, as much as we need the EU.
/abcnews.al
