Prime Minister Rama’s conversation with International Relations students at the University of Pristina:
Hello everyone! Before we left, I received an email from the organization, passed it on to the cabinet and told them to look at the possibility of organizing this meeting. I won’t hide from you that there was a lot of skepticism and generally the advice was “why go there with the risk”. But I like risks, so here I am.
Thank you for the invitation and your presence here.
It is a pleasure for me, because I believe that they are important spaces of communication outside the clichés that we are used to and which are imposed on us also because of a kind of indifference, let’s say, among young people to engage in debates related to with politics, after all. Many make a basic mistake when they say “I don’t deal with politics, I don’t want to know about politics, I don’t care about politics”. You deal, you don’t deal, politics deals with you and the more people deal with politics, the more opportunities exist for politics to be more audible and more valuable to people. The fewer hands it remains in, the more there is a risk that politics will lose the ability to listen and understand people.
I have a lot of respect for young people who do not reject the challenge of dealing with politics, not necessarily to become politicians, but as citizens. Politics was born to bring people together, to make possible things that they cannot do alone. No one alone can change things that are beyond his power. Everything we encounter when we leave the house is beyond our individual powers, that’s why we need politics and the more zeros that come together to realize one goal or another, the more it is possible for the goal to be realized. This is what politics does, this is why it was born, and despite the fact that politics in the history of unification has done a lot of bad things, we must not forget that without politics there would not be many of the things that humanity has today. Without politics, neither the USA nor the EU would have been born. Without politics, there would not have been any rights, since freedom and the right to vote. Without politics, there would have been no progress in the issue of gender equality. Without politics, there would have been no support systems for the weakest. Without politics, there would not even be a sovereign Kosovo today.
– Do you, as the government of Albania together with the government of Kosovo, have a long-term plan for improving the economic, political, social position of the population in the Presheva Valley, and in the short-term plan, what will you do about this issue.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for the question because it helps us to frame the debate, not simply on the issue of the Presehve Valley, but beyond. Very often or perhaps always, except for those who live in the Valley or those who are connected for one reason or another with the Valley, when talking about the relations between Albania and Serbia and the efforts to develop a constructive relationship with Serbia, it is forgotten that there are Albanians living in Serbia and it is about an important national minority, who need a double support, an external support from the government and the state of Albania as well as from the government and the state of Kosovo, but also an internal support in the sense of leading in front of the topics that interest them, creating a relationship as favorable as possible with the government of the state where they live.
Of course this is easy to say and hard to do, and I have no illusions about it, but ignoring this fact does not help us to understand how we can advance the freedoms and rights of those who live in the valley of Presheva, using all the organisms.
Of course, the diplomatic mechanism that deals with relations between us and Serbia is inalienable. We can consider it or not, we can use it or not, but from its non-use and non-consideration comes the loss of one of the elements with which we can operate in favor of the residents of the Presheva Valley.
The truth is that we have made some strides in interacting with them. The truth is that our government has also tried to help directly. The truth is that we are in contact and we have from time to time made efforts to facilitate communication between them and the truth is that in the Valley there is a political life that is not poor and there are people with will, desire and ambition who want to use politics for improve living conditions there.
Of course there is a lot to do, but I am convinced of one thing, no matter how much we help abroad due to the limited financial means we have, whether Albania or Kosovo, it is important that we try to support them they and internally, definitely raising their voice, constantly placing before the eyes of the Serbian authorities the comparison between the way the citizens of Serbia are treated, the freedoms and rights they have in Kosovo in particular, and the way Serbian citizens with nationality are treated Albanian, that is, the Albanian national minorities in the valley of Presheva. The contrast is great, very great.
The truth is that Serbs in Kosovo have freedom and rights that every national minority and every country would dream of having. I’m not talking here about the Greek national minority in Albania because it’s a completely different story and the situation is completely different, but I’m talking about areas and territories that emerged from very fresh conflicts. So I would say we will work on all these plans. Neither of these plans is sufficient by itself. We must know how to harmonize all together and we must use the power of diplomacy as much as possible and with as much skill as possible.
– Have you agreed with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Mr. Kurti, on a possible agreement that you will sign in November. What could be the solution to the blockade regarding the issue of the North.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You know that for several years now, we have been engaged in a relationship between the governments of Albania and Kosovo at a completely different level from the previous one, introducing the mechanism of joint meetings between the two governments, which through this the instrument have the opportunity to discuss differently from what happens in routine bilateral meetings, to make decisions and give themselves the opportunity to follow the decisions in the process, since then comes another meeting, where the validation of those have been achieved or of those that have not been achieved.
Of course, the diplomatic mechanism that deals with relations between us and Serbia is inalienable. We can consider it or not, we can use it or not, but from its non-use and non-consideration comes the loss of one of the elements with which we can operate in favor of the residents of the Presheva Valley.
The truth is that we have made some strides in interacting with them. The truth is that our government has also tried to help directly. The truth is that we are in contact and we have from time to time made efforts to facilitate communication between them and the truth is that in the Valley there is a political life that is not poor and there are people with will, desire and ambition who want to use politics to improve living conditions there.
Of course there is a lot to do, but I am convinced of one thing, no matter how much we help abroad due to the limited financial means we have, whether Albania or Kosovo, it is important that we try to support them and internally , definitely raising their voice, constantly placing before the eyes of the Serbian authorities the comparison between the way the citizens of Serbia are treated, the freedoms and rights they have in Kosovo in particular, and the way Serbian citizens with Albanian nationality are treated, that is, the Albanian national minorities in the valley of Presheva. The contrast is great, very great.
The truth is that Serbs in Kosovo have freedom and rights that every national minority and every country would dream of having. I’m not talking here about the Greek national minority in Albania because it’s a completely different story and the situation is completely different, but I’m talking about areas and territories that emerged from very recent conflicts. So I would say we will work on all these plans. Neither of these plans is sufficient by itself. We must know how to harmonize all together and we must use the power of diplomacy as much as possible and with as much skill as possible.
– Have you agreed with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Mr. Kurti, on a possible agreement that you will sign in November. What could be the solution to the blockade regarding the issue of the North.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You know that for several years now, we have been engaged in a relationship between the governments of Albania and Kosovo at a completely different level from the previous one, introducing the mechanism of joint meetings between the two governments, which through this the instrument have the opportunity to discuss differently from what happens in routine bilateral meetings, to make decisions and give themselves the opportunity to follow the decisions in the process, since then comes another meeting, where the validation of those have been achieved or of those that have not been achieved.
The same thing would happen with special forces, if now that the problem is posed, special forces would not be replaced by forces on the table. What we should never forget is that Kosovo is the child of the international community. Kosovo was born from an ideal relationship at a certain moment between the extreme desire for freedom that translated into the creation of a liberation army and the extreme support of an international community, without which there was no question of Kosovo becoming independent. This international community, which we know very well who it is and these great friends and allies, we must keep them very close and we must not give them a reason to become cold, disappointed and tired, as happened to bad luck, with the history of the tariff where Kosovo lost a lot of international reputation, where foreign policy cannot become domestic policy. Of course you can do it to get votes, but it damages the country, it damages the perspective, it damages the relationship with others. Just as internal policy cannot become foreign policy and the confusion of these two things has been a problem that I hope Kosovo has overcome.
-Students from Kosovo who wish to study in Albania are quoted in quotas in various free countries and also Albanian students in public universities here. I would like to know if an intergovernmental cooperation with some reforms in education had the opportunity to offer students to study in the respective countries as regular students.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Appropriate question, in the sense that it gives me the opportunity to go back to the question the girl asked regarding the discussions we had today, and one of the points was the issue of better structuring of cooperation in the field of education where we have problems related to the recognition of diplomas, I believe you know very well, with contradictions between the laws here and the laws in Albania, in terms of students, problems with residence permits. Albania has removed them, for every citizen of Kosovo who comes to Albania, there is no longer a need for documents and a temporary permit, then for renewals, but with a very short procedure, a residence permit is obtained that is indefinite. Likewise for work permits, that there was an absurdity in our legislation that anyone coming from the EU can directly obtain a residence permit as long as they want and work where they want and as long as they want, while for others, including the citizens of Kosovo were like other foreigners, as if they were Arabs or Chinese. We gave the citizens of Kosovo, for a long time, the same right in Albania as every citizen of the EU, which means the same way that freedom of movement works in the EU, that wherever you are, you are not someone who you are with Romanian passport and you are in Portugal and you have different rules, but the same rules as the Portuguese have. Imagine, among Albanians, a history of letters, permit checks, authorizations, certificates that are not discussed afterwards, mixed with tips, bribes, and cousins. So in that respect, we have freed up the process.
The other aspect is about how much we can open up the process to enable a freer flow of study. We are studying this. We want to give students from Kosovo much more space in Albanian universities. At the moment I don’t have the final answer because we are studying it, but what I want to tell you is that at the same time, we are doing an intensive work to move to another level the variety of opportunities offered by Albanian universities in Albania, introducing foreign universities in partnership with our universities, which offer the same programs and equivalent degrees. For example, if you want to study agronomy in Vienna, in one of the most famous universities in the world for rural development issues, you can find this in Tirana. We haven’t done it at the moment, but this is a process we are going through and there you get a diploma that is the same as you got it in Vienna, because you get it in joint programs. We have a number of universities that are entering joint programs.
On the other hand, we want to bring foreign universities. For example, the first foreign university that we will bring, which will be independent and which will not have limited quotas for Kosovo students, but will be open to all, is the Technical University of Istanbul. We are preparing all the necessary documentation. It has been agreed, now it is being worked on and the opening of the Technical University of Istanbul in Albania makes it possible without moving from home or you with a small movement from home to the other home, to be able to do top studies, to get a diploma that is worth exploring the world and spending a lot less if you were to go there. The possibilities are greater, because there are more places, and there are fewer there. That’s pretty much the answer.
– I wanted to ask you a question that you previously answered indirectly; it is mainly about the “Open Balkan” initiative in which you are one of the main initiators of this initiative. I would like to ask you whether you really believe that this initiative would bring about better regional economic cooperation and new economic opportunities for the Balkans and the Albanian countries in particular, or can it be described as a political action or act that puts pressure on European Union for the integration of regional countries in the European Union?
The second question has to do with you as a leader of all Albanians outside the borders of Albania, what should Albanians remember during your political career?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You and people in general think that politicians say what they don’t think, think what they don’t say and do what they don’t believe and don’t believe in what they do. But I want to tell you very honestly that I would never have been involved in politics if I had been born in France, Germany, England or America. I wouldn’t even have been involved in politics in Albania, if history hadn’t been intertwined with the course of my life, which in one way or another involved me without ever thinking that one day I would wear a suit, for example.
When I got involved with politics, I had ears, I had original teeth. I have had hair, more or less than all of you here, although you have it long, but you keep it short yourself. I want to prolong them, I have nothing to prolong. So, many years ago and without thinking that I would deal with this work, things flowed in a certain way. I don’t know if you have heard the expression that “life is what happens to us while we are making other plans”.
I don’t do anything I don’t believe in, and if I don’t believe something, I don’t have the capacity to follow through and do it. I believe 100%, not 99%, that the only way to get out of the endless inertia of the reproduction of history and to produce well-being is the “Open Balkan” for us. Today, as a complementary part for the path of full integration in the European Union, which does not depend on us. Kosovo should have been able to move freely, you should have been able to move freely for several years now, without visas. You are the only community in Europe with visas and you are the only community that the Euro-Atlantic alliance has freed from an ethnic dictatorship. It is absurd, your grandparents and parents, who in certain cases lived under Slobodan Milosevic, moved freely around Europe with the passport of Yugoslavia. You live in a sovereign state and you cannot move. Because the European Union does not keep its word. Nothing they say today has anything to do with your right to move freely. They told Kosovo, – as they told everyone, as they also told Albania before, – that you have to do these tasks that are technical, to ensure the borders, to ensure the parameters of the passports, a series of them and then they will we liberalize visas. I don’t say this, no politician here in Kosovo says it, but the European Union’s own report says it. I don’t know how attentive you were at the moment, because now years have passed, but they came out suddenly and said “you have to do the demarcation with Montenegro so that we can remove your visas”. What did the demarcation with Montenegro have to do with a technical process, equal to all others, let’s find out. Since you can’t find it, you have to do it too. The demarcation was done. Why don’t they remove the visas?
