The informal meeting held in Tirana by Prime Minister Rama and where the leaders of the Western Balkan countries were invited has ended.
The leaders of the region, with the exception of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, who is in a conference in Crete, Greece, had an informal lunch at Villa 30 in the capital.
Focus of the meeting was on the Berlin process that will be held in Albania in the fall, as well as the New Financial and Economic Support Plan of the EU for the Western Balkans, as Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on his Facebook account following the meeting.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood, Oliver Varhelyi, was part of the informal meeting in Tirana.
The opposition in Kosovo strongly condemned the boycott that Kosovo made of the informal EU-Western Balkans meeting that took place in Tirana, within the framework of the Berlin Process. PDK’s vice president, Vlora Çitaku considered Kurti’s refusal to accept Rama’s invitation as childish, adding that due to the very importance of the meeting, the head of the Kosovo government had to be in Tirana today.
Çitaku writes with irony that Kurti was not invited to the wedding, but to a meeting with the leaders of the region and the refusal is simply a personal whim of the Prime Minister of Kosovo.
“Childish and politically irresponsible behavior of Prime Minister Kurti. How could a conference on the beautiful islands of Greece be more important than a meeting with the leaders of the region and the European Commission in Tirana?! Prime Minister, Edi Rama did not invite you to a family wedding, but to a meeting with the leaders of the region, within the framework of the Berlin process. In such meetings, your non-participation is no longer your personal rejection of Rama. There is nothing personal here”, wrote Çitaku in Facebook.
The non-participation of Albin Kurti in the Tirana meeting was also blamed on the head of AKR Behgjet Pacolli.
“Kosovo’s non-participation in the preparatory meeting of the Berlin Summit, regardless of whose fault it is, that it is now chaired by Albania, is the worst news that can happen to Kosovo. This initiative focuses on the fastest possible integration of the region into the EU and that there have been many concessions for Kosovo, taking into account that Serbia has always been rejecting the participation of Kosovo.
The non-participation of Kosovo makes Serbia very happy. My regret is the total lack of responsibility of the Government and the Prime Minister who, despite being invited, refused without any reason”, wrote Pacolli on Facebook.
