On the day of Europe, the Albanian Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati, said that Albania, on the verge of opening the EU accession negotiations, keeps facing the challenge of concrete results.
As he said, EU is not an exclusive club in which one can enter by paying a fee.
“Today, on the day of Europe, each of us may ask if the European project can be considered complete while an organic part of it, Western Balkan, remains outside. The answer is certainly not. We thought we were lucky to be to the heart of the European civilization. Maybe it is our mistake to think this because there is a fine line between reality and imagination. This is what should not make us think that we automatically deserve to join the EU. The EU is not a club in which enters whoever pays. It is, first of all, a unity of values. And values cannot be achieved with 5-year-plans or 10-year-plans. Valued are moulded and nourished. They are not shown with words, but with deeds. I say this because we are in a historic time, the starting of the EU accession talks. As every other challenge, it will be the result of our concrete work, not of our past”, said the Head of the Albanian diplomacy.
“Albanians are one of the most euro-enthusiastic people. While we leave history behind and try to go ahead, we still remain one of the most EU-enthusiastic people. The first slogans in the early 90s ‘We want Albania like the rest of Europe’ were not some marketing findings, but an expression of the aspiration of future generations to arrive politically where we have always been spiritual. In the time of the fake news, social media and all other phenomena, Albania needs more than ever to get known through its culture”, he said.
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