At the conclusion of the Growth Plan “Our Pathway to the EU” Summit, Prime Minister Edi Rama and the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, held a joint press conference.
* * *
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Greetings,
This was another European day in full meaning for Albania and Tirana, where we gathered in the Growth Plan Summit of the European Union for the Western Balkans, a roundtable that was built to assess the state of play of the time between summits, to review the results of the joint initiatives to underline new commitments, to follow meticulously the calendar of the homework each and every one of the Western Balkans countries have to fulfill vis-à-vis the new growth plan, and to discuss finally on everything that every one of us feels necessary to share around that table.
I could say that we concluded today another fruitful meeting that saw tangible steps to take further that will bring the region closer to the European Union, reconfirming that the new growth plan is a swift and safe bridge towards the single European market.
Well, briefly, I’m going to bring to the public attention some of the commitments that were brought up. The roaming is one of them. With the new agreement, it will apply also to our citizens under the regime of the European Union, a very critical and meaningful step, following the one of the common payment area that actually sees transactions carried out without any extra cost, saving dozens and dozens of millions of euros for the citizens of each of the Western Balkans countries. Interconnectivity with European corridors continues to remain a priority, and it continues to be funded under the EU instruments.
Trade and trade facilitation has a detailed plan on border crossing points.
Digital transformation and digital identity, which we have ready by now and will start to enact by next year, early next year, practically preceding the whole digital identification system of the European Union, which means there will be no longer any need of ID cards, passports, and so on and so forth, since identification will happen via a smartphone.
Digital identity will equally apply and help with so many other activities, including financial transactions or direct purchases through smartphones and so on. Clearly, we spoke of approximating the European value chain when it comes to the industrial dialogue as well as another component that needs to be strengthened, tourism as a component that needs to be reinforced.
I believe that we’ve opened a new path in terms of cooperating with the Commission as far as the empowerment, strengthening of the higher education is concerned. We have started with internationalization, but I believe that with the support of the Commission, we can take it to a different level, not only in cooperation with the Commission, but also with the region.
Finally, I would like to thank all those who participated. I wish to thank them for their presence and for their contribution. I would like to especially thank the European Commission, its own representative unit, its embassy, its — I’ve never learned how it’s called — the delegation of the European Union to Tirana for the work they’ve been doing so far in cooperation with ourselves.
I wish to thank all the present institutions. And last but not least, I wish to thank the Commissioner who is again in Albania and with whom we meet very soon following the historic milestone of some days ago that marked the opening of all clusters for EU membership.
Thank you very much once again.
Dear Marta, the floor is yours.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos: Greetings, dear friends and journalists. the Mr. Prime Minister enabling us discussing this very important tool which helps Western Balkan countries on the way into the European Union. I always love to come back to Tirana, sometimes for the bilateral meetings, sometimes now as a group of the Western Balkans. It’s good to see your support, not just on the European way of your country into the EU, but I can feel also your commitment towards the EU integration of all the other Western Balkan countries.
Today, we have had a frank discussion on how to speed up the implementation and to make up the growth plan a success that delivers for all the people of the Western Balkans. And we talked about the need to enlarge the notion of the enlargement.
So, for me, enlargement is really much more than just the enlargement. And to integrate you all as soon as possible into more and more EU policy areas and not only into the single market but also into our energy market, into pan-European value chains and just like last week the college adopted the democracy shield and a civil society strategy and in both candidate countries and EU member states are treated as equals.
And I’m proud of that and we will go even further, including you, in the endeavor to protect democracy and our values. We want to make the European Union a lived reality in your countries already today, to bring prosperity, stability and security to all of us.
In some areas this is already taking shape. Albanians, Montenegrins, Macedonians already benefit from cheaper transaction costs because of SEPA. But our ambition is for all of the countries to advance in sync and we do not want new gaps to develop between the Western Balkan six and because ultimately all the Western Balkan countries belong into the European Union, all Western Balkan countries should become full members of the Union with, and I stress, full rights as the confirmation for full alignment with EU laws and even more important with EU values. And let us focus today on how we can accelerate in the second half of the growth plan. And there is one particularly important deadline coming up in June. The one-year grace period for unmet reforms from the second reporting round will expire. So I called all the leaders to push on even more implementation of the reforms.
We also discussed the next steps in reducing roaming rates. Paying extra for cross-border phone calls or communication is something we no longer do inside the European Union. So why should you? And for this to happen, we need to work on faster in alignment with the EU rules.
On the Green Lanes implementation is ongoing. Last year we agreed on 11 common crossing points between the EU and Western Balkans and 5 common crossing points within the Western Balkans. And as you saw this morning, the Commission and the World Bank exchanged a letter of intent committing to swiftly move on with the second phase of the Safe and Sustainable Transport Program. And let’s unblock projects to improve transport infrastructure, digital innovation, consumer protection and tourism. And this will benefit not just your citizens but also your businesses.
Now, that sometimes the reforms we agreed to together are not always easy. But they allow to accelerate EU accession talks and prepare your economies for the single market. And as you like to tell, it is about the transformation process, and this can bring big results. And this transformation process is unlocking opportunity, is giving access to member state treatment in some EU policies, and it also shows our member states that you are ready for more and deeper integration into the European Union.
We also talked about how our instruments can attract more foreign investments. We expect that the closer the countries of the Western Balkans, we get to the EU and as you know, we describe your country Albania and Montenegro as frontrunners. The more this is what we know from the past, the more curious the citizens will get from the member state, but also the more investors will be ready to come.
The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told me she was here for your investment conference, how impressed she was, and we should go on with this. I heard today from you that you are planning a new investment conference here in Tirana. Congratulations.
Why is this important? This is crucial to make your economic convergence with the EU countries a reality, and you are on a good track. And to the end, we have another two years to make the growth plan really a resounding success and prepare the ground for your EU accession. And we should use every day to work on the European future of the Western Balkans.
***
My first question is for the Commissioner. The OSCE-ODHIR report, as well as the European Commission report, indicated that the May 11th elections were an uneven competition as public resources were used. There was an intimidation of the voters, as well as an interference from the European as well as criminal gangs. What do you think? Did these elections meet integration standards, and did they meet the EU standards?
For Prime Minister Edi Rama is another question. When your previous deputy minister was declared wanted from SPAK, you said that you do not take any accountability for those who hang behind your back. Now you have one of your closest collaborators in prison, whereas only Yesterday, the special court decided that Ms. Balluku is suspended. Are you going to dismiss Ms. Balluku? Is this something that happens with your collaborators behind your back, or is this a governing model which you need to take responsibility of?
Thank you!
***
EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos
It’s always good to get some suggestions for improvement, and this is good for Albania and also for the European Union.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for the question.
First, I wish to say that if Albania has opened today all the accession clusters, among some fundamental reasons is also the fact that Albania is seriously combating corruption and organized crime. There is no question that even the fact that such questions can be addressed today is tied to a new era we have started. And it is this governing majority that has taken Albania to this new stage and era, helmed by me. When it comes to the specific case you mentioned, I wish to say three things.
First, the judicial independence is neither a slogan nor a political maneuver or rather a temporary experiment. Instead, it is a historic parting with the past that has only become a reality in the last years. And this independence has brought an absolute novelty to the country’s institutional life and unquestionably positive developments starting off with an undeniable fact, that is the burial of the impunity culture that dated back to more than 100 years ago.
In the meantime, it has shed light on the obvious witnesses or shortcomings of a new state that is a toddler state, as well as old anti-democratic reflexes.
Second, I wish to reiterate that regardless of and beyond the high prize for the country, not simply for us, that such old anti-democratic reflexes of the new special bodies have. When it comes to ourselves and when it comes to myself personally, defending and preserving the independence of the justice system are preconditions.
They are preconditions to every our position because as a wise saying goes, which I like very much, you never throw the baby out with the bathwater. And then I’ll come to the third point. The suspension of a minister from their office, in this case of a deputy prime minister directly responsible for heading government works in absence of the prime minister, is another sign another indication of the flaws, I would say, or shortcomings of a very new power and of the anti-democratic reflexes that I mentioned earlier.
This is a unique case in the history of Europe. as well as in the history of the justice special bodies established as part of the European integration practices of the former Eastern countries, where it never happened ever that a prosecutor and a judge come together and suspend from office a member of the government. However, and it’s a big however, if a special prosecutor and a special judge, that is a first instance special court here in Albania, decided to suspend a minister in direct breach of the independence and functioning of another independent power, such as the executive, taking over the competences of the prime minister, of the president and of the parliament, where the mandate of the government and every niche minister stems from, our choice vis-à-vis this fact is like always a strategic one to preserve and support the dependence of the judiciary as a precondition, even in such an extreme case.
Bluntly said, we cannot react towards such an arbitrariness in the same way. Neither are we going to engage, God forbid, in a political or rhetorical battle with justice. Instead, we will continue with our strategic patience. We will protect and support the independence of the judiciary. We are going to accept with no condition the decision for the suspension of the Deputy Prime Minister. And in the meantime, we are going to seek protection of the violated independence of the government only by addressing justice itself at the Constitutional Court. This is who we are. This is who I am. And that is how it is going to be up until the end of my privilege to lead Albania and make it a member of the European Union.
Defending the New and not temporary dependence of the judiciary is our absolute priority even when faced with such a flagrant situation as the one we are talking about, for which justice itself must find a constitutional answer.
Prime Minister, as you already mentioned yourself, the government cannot have a deputy prime minister. It’s a constitutional post. So have you actually thought of the next name, the person who will replace Belinda Balluku as deputy prime minister? And will this individual have just as much of a strong political character as Belinda Balluku, or will it be a mostly technical figure, perhaps? Thank you.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
I’m afraid we did not understand ourselves. The suspension is a court judgment that we are going to refer to the Constitutional Court as a brutal act of interference with the executive power. Then it is after the Constitutional Court to tell us or to inform us of its own position based on the constitution of the Republic of Albania. Therefore, we are not in the conditions whereby possibly interfering with – or possible interference with executive power, the government may be forced to make a move. So this is not what’s – happening.
Whilst we are speaking, the Government of Albania does not have a Deputy Prime Minister and at the same time a Minister of Infrastructure active in office.
Thank you.
Ms Kos you heard the statement of the Prime Minister in relation to the Deputy Prime Minister Balluku So a question to you. The European Union, does it expect aspiring candidate countries and in the future member states to have a Deputy Prime Minister and a minister upon which there is a special prosecution charge? Thank you.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos: I cannot comment on concrete cases. What I can say is that the independent judiciary system is one of the biggest achievements of Albania in the last years and that also Albania has made important progress on fighting corruption. And this is what we have also found out or put down in our enlargement report. What has happened in the last two years is in Albania on the field of the rule of law, on the field of protection of the citizens and the companies and I could go on, is unprecedented.
What we want from every candidate country is having a system when there will be, with the help of a judiciary system, legal certainty that if the rights from somebody are violated, there are judges and courts who will take care And of course, you know, such cases are happening all around. What is important is that we follow the rulings of the courts and this is what I have heard will happen also here.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
To conclude, I wish to add something that is very important in principle, because The European Union was brought as a point of reference in terms of what should be happening from the political perspective. There is no uniform position in the European Union, but what’s most important is that it doesn’t happen in the European Union that people are suspended from their office. It is a unique case in the history of Europe. suspended by being elected officials. It never happens in the European Union that mayors are taken from their offices to prison with no trial and are kept in pre-detention for months and months in a row. It doesn’t ever happen in the European Union that as the Strasbourg-based torture committee states that a country has more pre-detained individuals as compared to prisoners who suffer their sentence by a final court decision.
At this point, I believe that all of us must do our own job and play our own role. We have our role to play, that is, be guarantors of this justice that Albania is knowing for the first time in its own history, to defend the judicial independence even when it weighs upon us in the form of an injustice according to ourselves. that I repeat is second to none in Europe, and we are intent on respecting our own boundary without interfering with the territory of another independent power.
On the other hand, everybody has got to do their own job. You cannot interfere with the territory of another independent power that applies to the executive power, to the legislative power, And equally so, a friendly remark from me is that the culture of public trials and organizations in halls that once upon a time used to be halls of the culture palaces and now are media halls to spill sentences based on leaked information investigation secrets leaked by the prosecutors themselves is something we must do away with because it is not to the benefit of society. But this is not my job.
My job is what I mentioned. We are the guarantors of the independence of the judiciary. We will continue to be guarantors of such independence at any price, at any cost, even if The cost is such that makes you speak out whatever crosses your mind. But this is what we have to do wanting to become a member of the European Union. It is a new power at toddler stages built on a past that does not help the independent justice.
There is no historic tradition or culture of independent justice. The capacities of the prosecutors and judges are another critical part that needs enhancement and strengthening. It takes time. It takes patience and resolve. Indeed, we do have such resolve, and for as long as we have it, this is how it’s going to be. And when I say for as long as, I’m speaking about myself, for as long as I will be in this office, you will never witness any battles with justice or any counterculture. counter allegations, all the allegations coming from justice. It is the court that needs to examine those.
On the other hand, there is a limit. It is the limit that is established by the Constitution, dividing independent powers. And if we allow such limits to be infringed upon, then we would have lost something that is fundamental not for myself, for this government, or for a minister of this government. but something which is fundamental to the constitutional order of the Republic of Albania.
Thank you very much!
