Rama in Munich: EU must accelerate Western Balkans integration

2025-02-16 12:05:56Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Rama in Munich: EU must accelerate Western Balkans integration
Edi Rama

Prime Minister Edi Rama, during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, stressed the urgent need for a new European stance towards the integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European Union. He stated that, although there have been changes in the EU's stance towards the region and the pace of integration, progress has slowed.

"Europe must divide its mind about what is happening, because it has changed in terms of its attitude towards us, it has changed in terms of the pace of the negotiations with the BP. But what is happening is that it is changing very slowly and very little. We can talk all day about the merit-based process, but the time has come to make a clear division, a merit-based process must be about one thing, the right to vote in the European Council, based on merit cannot mean bringing all countries into the common market. I think that this can now be accelerated completely, it can be something that is much more related to the behavior of that part of Europe that is not in the EU, much closer, in different ways of thinking about the continent. What is outside the EU cannot be a space that anyone can take, but only the EU. The Western Balkans look like the Park of Europe, a place where many things can happen, a lot has happened in Poland, Slovakia or the Czech Republic, which helped these countries move at an impressive speed. Europe must change, it's not just me saying it, Mario Draghi says it. He issued a strong report that Europe must change.

"There are many people who feel like something has gone very wrong, it is an opportunity to wake up, to start running, to get what has been lost over these years, with so many regulations, so many talks and so little action. The idea is for a faster integration of the Western Balkan countries into the EU," said Rama.

 


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