Gianni Pitella, Head of the Socialist and Democratic Parliamentary Group
in the European Parliament, said that people who live because of war
should be admitted as asylum seekers in the EU. He says that the EU
should cooperate closely with Albania to block any effort of
traffickers, who would turn into a criminal business the desperate
travel of Syrians.
TCH: You will travel to Albania for the Socialist Party Congress. Are you informed about the internal debates of the SP?
Ganni Pittella, President of S&D at EP: Sincerely, not. I am more interested on the situation in Albania, on what the government is doing and what will do, and the SP Congress in general. But I am not interested about the divisions between the party, if there are. Those are internal issues.
TCH: Do parties of your Socialist family in Europe hold elections for the leader, even when he has won the general elections?
Gianni Pittella: Yes, certainly. In many countries, the party leader coincides with that of the government leader. Matteo Renzi in Italy is PM and DP leader. The same goes in several European countries. I don’t see any irregularity.
TCH: Do leaders stay even after their mandate is over, without holding elections?
Gianni Pittella: This is an exclusive decision of the Socialist Party in Albania. It is not up to Gianni Pitella or others. This is a free and independent decision taken by those who hold the SP card. I think that Rama deserves to keep leading the party, based on his work as PM.
TCH: You were critical about his stance for closing border. What stance should Albania hold regarding immigrants?
Gianni Pittella: I have never criticized Rama. I have said that asylum seekers who are leaving wars need to receive asylum and to be treated decently, that’s why I am in favor of accepting them and against the clandestine traffic. These are two important points and the fight should be done together, in cooperation between Albania and Italy. Now that the border between Greece and Macedonia is closed, “death” traffickers might chose the Balkan path towards Italy. I have heard that a 9 meter boat costs 9000 EUR. We need to oppose these traffics through cooperation.
TCH: Why should Albania keep immigrants when the war in Syria is not a problem created by Albania and when the EU member countries refuse to shelter them, and don’t even respect the agreement for equally distributing them?
Gianni Pittella: Each of us has a specific moral, civilian and legal duty to welcome refugees. If Albania says they are not interested, although war in Syria interests to the entire world, due to its global cosnequences, the European countries need to make a distribution. It is right that if we ask Albania to be part of it, we need to ask first our EU countries to do their part. Some are doing their part, some are not doing it and they need to receive a punishment.
The economic sanctions should not be only for the countries that cross with 0.0 the stability pact. They need to foresee political sanctions for violations made by EU countries that do not respect the decisions.
Top Channel
