Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has reiterated his call to the EU to provide more support to Western Balkan countries amid the war against rising prices, inflation, and energy issues.
Rama made the comments on Monday at a meeting between his government and North Macedonia in Skopje, also condemning the “huge and excruciating gap” between becoming candidates for EU membership and opening the accession process.
“On December 6, the EU summit with the Western Balkans will be held, and we will be together with all our desires, problems and challenges that are more and more the same as those of the EU, and it is time to design the future by looking together from EU to include us more and more in the organised effort to resist price increases, even inflation,” he said.
Rama also spoke of the Russian war in Ukraine, which is threatening the region in many ways.
“The war to bring the West to its knees, NATO and all the countries west of Russia, of which we are a part, the war has not come with bombs or deportations, but with price increases, and it is increasingly clear that there is no other way,” he said, calling for countries to work together.
A total of 21 agreements, memorandums and protocols were signed between the two countries. These included developing roads, improving child protection, implementing Albanian sign language in both countries, and papers on defence, security, digitisation, and border control.
Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia Artan Grubi praised cooperation between the two countries, including using the Albanian language in official institutions, representation in government institutions, and improving logistics.
“The first, the opening of a new border crossing between the two countries…The second, the Skopje-Durres railway, and the third, which is an initiative of Rama, is about the Dry Port in Struga. I thank Prime Minister Rama for enabling us to connect a landlocked country to the port of Durrës,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku said that cooperation between countries was the only way to overcome the crisis in a sustainable way. She said this is not just about price increases but ensuring the necessary quantities of energy for the future and being more prepared.
She said the energy agreement between the two countries was a good example of this, noting Albania is not reliant on Russian gas.
“This is not just a crisis situation. It has to do with the regional security of all the countries of the Western Balkans,’ Balluku declared.
Rama has previously called on the EU to do more to help the region.
“The EU should not do the shame it did during the pandemic with us. They all remember very well how the Balkan countries were forced to run to China, Russia, and Turkey to start the rescue operation of nurses and doctors for vaccination,” Rama said during an Open Balkan Summit in November.
“The EU closed itself and saw only within the walls of its own castle, and the leaders of the EU have accepted that this was a shame,” he added.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
Source: euractiv.com
