The Albanian Prime Minister paints a EU entry as a pure survival issue in the long run.
It is the only place where our next generation can live with the knowledge that individual freedom, democracy, and the rule of law are guaranteed, says Rama on site in Luxembourg where Albania's first real so-called negotiation chapter with the EU was opened on Tuesday morning.
A special thanks – albeit ironic – goes to Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
His brutal war of aggression has awakened even the most skeptical and made them see reality: that the Western Balkans are needed for a stronger EU. We will run fast to ensure that this opening does not close, says Rama.
Even the EU Minister Jessica Rosencrantz (The Moderate Party) is happy.
Very positive. We have not had this type of chapter opening in several years now. Albania can also be a positive example for other countries, says Rosencrantz in Luxembourg.
She warns at the same time that the membership process is still long.
This should be merit-based. Countries must live up to basic conditions. They have made important progress, but much work remains, emphasizes Rosencrantz.
Albania is located in the Western Balkans, with borders to Montenegro and Kosovo in the north, North Macedonia in the east, and Greece in the south.
The country has 2.7 million inhabitants, of which half a million in the capital Tirana. Albania has been a member of NATO since 2009 and received the green light in 2022 to begin formal negotiations for EU membership.
The country was long Europe's most isolated – "a North Korea in the middle of Europe", as the current Prime Minister Edi Rama expresses it – under the communist dictator Enver Hoxha who ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985.
