Excluded from Athens dinner, Rama says ‘Once the Balkans, always the Balkans’

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama did not want to comment on the decision of his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to invite him to a meeting of Western Balkan and European Commission leaders in Athens but told EURACTIV that simply “Once the Balkans, always the Balkans”.

The informal dinner was organised on Monday evening by the Greek prime minister with the participation of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council chief Charles Michel and eight leaders of southeastern Europe: Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, Montenegro President Jakov Milatovic, North Macedonia Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski and President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Kristo.

In the case of Albania, Mitsotakis preferred to invite President Bajram Begaj – whose role is mainly non-political and ceremonial- and not Rama. Tirana ended up without representation as Begaj did not attend due to a “previously defined agenda”.

Asked by EURACTIV, Rama did not want to comment on the incident and apparently attributed the lack of invitation to the Balkan mentality.

“Once the Balkans, always the Balkans,” he commented.

Greek press reports suggested that Mitsotakis wanted to show that he was disturbed with Rama over the Mayor of Himare Fredi Beleri case.

Fredi Beleri, a Greek expatriate running for mayor under the banner of a Greek minority party aligned with an opposition coalition, was arrested in mid-May on suspicion of vote buying. The police said he was to be charged with active corruption in elections, something Beleri denies.

Beleri has been detained since then. Although he won the elections, he has not been allowed to be sworn in as mayor of Himare in the south of the country and home to a Greek minority community.

In a move likely to stoke the flames between Athens and Tirana, Beleri was refused a change of security measure in court on Monday – something demanded by Greece under the threat of interruption of Albania’s EU accession.

He has lost multiple successive attempts to be released from prison before facing trial.

This has caused fury in Greece, with Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis leading the call for his release. Political forces in Athens have said that failure to release Beleri will impact Albania’s EU accession path, for which a unanimous vote from all EU countries is needed.

The Ministry of Justice also reacted on Monday evening, claiming the Albanian authorities are not respecting the rule of law, but without giving specifics.

Beleri is being tried by the Special Court Against Corruption and Organised Crime, a specialist court set up with the backing and supervision of the European Union, and with support from Greece, as a part of the ongoing justice reform and fulfiling EU membership criteria.

Athens insists the case is linked to protecting minority rights, a key prerequisite for EU accession.

On 14 August, a protest was organised in Himare by the Greek minority organisation ‘Omonoia’, attended by the mayors of Athens and Thessaloniki, Kostas Bakoyannis and Konstantinos Zervas. A pre-recorded message from European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas was also played.

Schinas, who is also Greek, urged Albania to abandon what he described as an unproductive strategy which hinders the country’s path to the EU. He also called it a “deeply un-European” situation.

Bakoyannis also said that if Albania wants to join the EU, it must uphold the rule of law and European principles, while his Thessaloniki counterpart Zervas said he had sent letters about the situation to mayors worldwide, stating that Beleri’s incarceration threatened democracy and the rights of the Greek minority.

As for the court session in Tirana on Monday, Beleri appeared in person to request a change of the ‘prison arrest’ measure. The court rejected his plea, and lawyer Edmond Pepa told the media, “We are convinced he is being held politically in prison,” and claimed the court is powerless in the face of the government.

Beleri is being held alongside 48 other individuals on similar charges, including former mayors and representatives of the ruling Socialist Party. His lawyers say if he is not sworn in as the new mayor by mid-September, he loses his mandate, and a new vote must be held.

In an op-ed published by EURACTIV and in social media posts, Rama has expressed his surprise at Greek, democratically elected officials protesting in Albania against the justice system.

“I cannot hide my deepest sorrow in the face of the surreal intervention of the Greek side in the matter of Albanian justice, the statements in Athens and the whinging in Brussels,” Rama wrote, stressing once again that the process was about possible electoral crimes and had nothing to do with Greek minority rights.

Rama said Greeks are welcome to protest in Albania, and Greek media are welcome to write about the situation, but they should be prepared to consider Tirana’s side of the story.

“There is no other case, to the best of my knowledge, where the elected officials of a democratic state organise a protest in another democratic state against the authorities,” he added.

The incident comes just months after Mitsotakis cancelled a trip to Himare the day before an EU-Western Balkan summit in Tirana after Rama told EURACTIV in an interview that Greece cheated on its EU accession process.

The comments went viral across Greece, and the Albanian prime minister apologised during a bilateral meeting at the EU-Western Balkan Summit in Tirana.

It also takes place in the context of a protracted disagreement on maritime borders set to be decided by an international tribunal.

In an interview with EURACTIV in December 2022, Sali Berisha – considered closer to Athens – revealed that Ankara, a long-time foe of Athens, made a “really strong intervention” to block a maritime border agreement between Albania and Greece in 2009.

(Alice Taylor | Exit.al – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com)