Albanian Prime Minister: We Are Doing Everything That Is Needed, Not Waiting Around for EU

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Skopje ,July 29.(BETAPHOTO/VLADA SEVERNE MAKEDONIJE/SEKRETARIJAT ZA EVROPSKE POSLOVE/DS)

The leaders and peoples of Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia have decided to do all that they need to do and not wait around for the region's integration to depend on the EU, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in Skopje on July 29.

At a regional economic cooperation summit he spoke after Serbian Aleksandar Vucic gave a speech on connectivity and lifting barriers and borders between Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, stressing that the three countries were beginning to do today what they "will do in the EU tomorrow."

"We do not have [a reason] to stay closed within our borders, with our backs turned to one another and today we are beginning to do in the region what we will do in the EU tomorrow," the Albanian prime minister said. Rama stressed that the summit was also important "due to the enormous presence of businesspeople from not just Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia but Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Greece and several other countries."

The Albanian prime minister described the initiative for regional connectivity as "strategic for Albania" and stressed that "it is precisely the mosaic of the businesspeople who are present here today that strongly speaks of its value and how much people need it" and that a shared regional economic space could achieve more than these companies separately.