Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti will not meet with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama during the latter’s visit to Pristina, unless an intergovernmental meeting is held first.
In a press conference this Wednesday, Prime Minister Kurti invited Prime Minister Rama to hold the previously cancelled meeting of the Governments of Kosovo and Albania, which was scheduled for 14 June in Gjakova.
“I am in direct contact with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania Edi Rama and I know he will come to visit Pristina in the frameworks of a Balkan tour. This tour is said to be related to the preparations for the next summit of the Berlin Process, scheduled to be held in mid-October. In a friendly way, I asked Prime Minister Rama, since he will stay for two days and a night in Pristina, to hold the meeting of the two governments, which was cancelled without any reasons,” said Prime Minister Kurti.
Albania’s participation in the 14 June intergovernmental meeting was cancelled by Prime Minister Edi Rama during a 13 June emergency press conference, at a time when tensions between Kosovo and Serbia were rising, and Kosovo faced criticism from the Western community after deciding that the new Albanian mayors in the four northern municipalities – areas predominately inhabited by Serbs – would take to their offices, despite their opposition.
At the time, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama decided to align with the Western community’s stance in condemning Kosovo for further deteriorating the security situation in the northern municipalities, by installing special units of the Kosovo Police to guard municipal buildings, while local Serbs had been protesting every day. At the heights of those tensions, Serb protesters clashed with NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, with dozens of soldiers and protesters as well injured during the 29 May protest.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama had by then submitted a draft statute on the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities in Kosovo to France, Germany and the United States, but the text was refuted by both Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, even though it was deemed a valuable document by the European Union.
The intergovernmental meeting between Kosovo and Albania would have been the ninth meeting, where both governments would sing on 13 additional agreements. Prime Minister Albin Kurti said it is in the best interest of the citizens that these agreements are implemented as soon as possible.
“We had to sign 13 agreements, which are now stored in a drawer. It is not prime ministers who benefit from those agreements, but citizens. Every day lost is harmful to them. I have proposed to Prime Minister Edi Rama to hold the joint governments meeting, sign those agreements and start implementing them as soon as possible.”
Prime Minister Kurti argued that the Berlin Process is indeed of utmost importance but there is no rush to start consulting on preparations for the Tirana summit this early.
“The Berlin Process is very important and there is no political or institutional leader in the Balkans, such as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo who has supported and continues to support the Berlin Process. But the next summit in Tirana is scheduled for mid-October. We are at the beginning of July. It is good that preparations have already started, but we should not delay even further with an unreasonable cancellation of the intergovernmental meeting. To me it is important to have this meeting,” Kurti further stated.
“If the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania Edi Rama insists on the cancellation of this meeting, then I stand my ground. We have direct contact, we meet frequently. If you see in the past two years of our government, I’ve had dozens of meetings with Prime Minister Rama. Relations between Kosovo and Albania, as well as democracy, peace and security in the Balkans is not hindered because the Prime Minister of Kosovo does not meet with the Prime Minister of Albania, but because the meeting of our two governments was cancelled without reason. Therefore, I consider it reasonable to hold a joint meeting of the governments, but not other meetings,” concluded Kurti.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced he would embark on a Balkan tour during 6-7 July to meet with regional prime ministers and presidents and discuss the Berlin Process, as well as the now terminated Open Balkan initiative.
Kosovo has long been a critic of the Open Balkan and refused to be a part of the initiative, with Prime Minister Albin Kurti insisting on the importance of the Berlin Process, a platform for high-level cooperation between the six countries of the Western Balkans, EU member states and institutions, international financial institutions, and regional civil society and businesses, initiated by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2014.
Ever since its inception, Tirana will host the Berlin Process summit for the first time in 16 October, an announcement Prime Minister Rama made during an interview to Euronews Albania on 1 July.
