Hours before meeting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, told the Euractiv news site that the process of joining the Western Balkans to the European Union is not a school exam to be “passed”. enter as Greece did.

In an interview published on Tuesday, Mr. Rama said “we must not forget that the process of integration is a process personalized on merit.” [της κάθε χώρας]. We have to meet certain criteria, and this is not an exam to “steal” from – even if the professors are more than willing to help you. It’s in your best interest to pass these exams.”

There, he added that it was important for his country to have functioning institutions and “not to cheat, as some neighboring countries did in the past.” When asked to name which countries he had in mind, he bluntly answered “Greece”.

A meeting between Rama and Mitsotakis is scheduled for Tuesday in Tirana, on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit, which is the first time that a candidate country from the region is hosting.

Mr. Rama does not seem to have high hopes for the summit: “The summit can do a lot of good. However, in the end, none of them will matter as much as the fact that the summit is taking place in Tirana,” he said.

Source: Evroaktiv