Rama for Politico: “Serbia will not join EU before Albania”

21/03/2018 17:36

The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, reiterated for Politico that Serbia will not join the EU before Albania.

According to the Politico, The Commission has designated Serbia, the most populous country in the Western Balkans, and its smaller neighbor Montenegro as front-runners in the accession process. But for Rama, Kosovo remains Serbia’s obstacle for EU accession.

“Serbia has to go through the painful process of recognizing Kosovo or at least [solving] the Kosovo problem”, Edi Rama said.

The Prime Minister also thinks that Albania is ahead of Serbia and Montenegro regarding the integration progress, and for this he mentions the judiciary reform.

“We did exactly what we had been asked. Hence, this process should be just, predictable and based on merit”, the Albanian Prime Minister declared.

Rama recognizes the problematic of the organized crime having ties with all government levels, but said that there should be no stereotypes. Rama brought Bulgaria and Romania as an example.

“When Bulgarians wanted to enter, they were the country that tried to kill the pope. It was everywhere. Romanians were the country that were somehow guilty for having made Europe discover prostitution. We now have to deal with this notion of a special thing in our DNA connected to crime,” he said.

Politico reminded a report of BIRN and Reporter Without Borders, which said that denigration of media and journalists is frequent in Rama’s speeches. Rama denied of having called media outlets “garbage bins”, but just a Turkish world that goes very well in Albanian for “waste bin”.

 

Top Channel