Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is on a working visit to Germany, on the occasion of participating in the "Charlemagne Europa Forum".
Invited to the panel discussions on the "European Perspective of the Western Balkans" led by Dr. Jürgen Linden, Chairman of the Board of the "International Charlemagne Prize", Rama said that “for us to be part of the EU is part of a community of peace, cooperation, and security”.
"In many other realities, the EU is perceived as an ATM, but for us, it is not so. It's not about money, it's about a peace parameter based on values, a tolerance parameter based on values, a security parameter based on values," said Rama.
"I don't know what will happen with the EU in the coming years, but it is certain that even if the EU disappears, Albania will continue to strive to be part of the EU," said Rama.
Rama said, "The Western Balkans is there to witness the need to complete the European Union project".
"To join the EU, of course, we need to do our homework. This is obvious. But, at the same time, thanks to Vladimir Putin unfortunately, the EU realized that the geopolitical aspect is much more apparent in itself than it seemed at the moment when someone thought that wars were a problem of the past and that they would never return to Europe. So when Russian aggression began against Ukraine, the EU, the EU's stance towards the Western Balkans changed forever and changed for the better. It is now only logical that European unity is a necessity and it is a necessity for the sake of the EU itself," he added.
The Prime Minister underscored that "we value the EU as an extraordinary source of knowledge to build institutions".
"It is obvious that building institutions in a country where we are all relatives is not easy and building institutions in an era where social networks are destroying many of those securities and references that were unquestionable in the way communities built their lives and in the way parents educated their children, makes this even more difficult and we want to do it and will do it at all costs," he added.
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