TIRANA, August 28 – “I don’t believe that in 2030 we will be in the EU, but at least in some of the steps… that would be very good. These things should also be in the process, not just reforms and criticism, which are absolutely necessary, but support as much as possible and I’m not talking only financially, but also help in the common market.”
This news was unveiled on Monday by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in his speech at the Bled summit that is taking place in Slovenia. Taking the floor in the panel of leaders at the Bled Strategic Forum on the topic of “solidarity for global security” Rama said with a touch of so-called black humor that he felt “tragically optimistic” regarding the integration of the countries of the Western Balkans into the EU.
“I have always known that working 50 years for free against the West, Enver Hoxha made us more pro-European and more pro-American than anyone else. It will take us another 50 years after the fall of communism until we are not consistently pro-European and pro-Western. We have another 20 years of Euro-optimism and I hope that by then you will have fulfilled your promise,” said Rama.
Being on the same wavelength with Rama the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic said in his contribution at the Bled forum that “Perhaps we will no longer want to be part of the EU” causing laughter among those participants.
According to Abazovic the EU should change its approach to the countries of the Western Balkans regarding their membership, since according to him, there may come a time when “we will no longer be enthusiastic about becoming part of the European Union”.
In addition he said ironically that the EU accepts the people of the Western Balkan countries, but not the states.
“If we don’t change something, you can be sure that after some time it will come to Euroscepticism and we will give the opportunity to a third party and we will no longer have that enthusiasm to be a part of them. And something, my friend Dimitri said something about the workers – our people are integrated in the EU and we don’t have workers in our country because everyone is in the EU. And the question is how is it possible that our people are welcomed to Europe, but not our countries?” /argumentum.al
