TIRANA, Feb. 20 – Prime Minister Edi Rama’s statement in Kosovo’s parliament suggesting the countries’ share a joint president became a controversial topic at home and abroad, with analysts viewing the idea with skepticism and Belgrade officials condemning Rama.
Rama’s statement was made during a ceremonial event that marked Kosovo’s ten-year-independence anniversary.
During the parliamentary session, the PM said Albania and Kosovo will have a common foreign policy in addition to joint diplomatic embassies and, why not, a common national security policy a common president to symbolize national unity.
“Maybe this vision is not currently attainable on rational grounds, but history advises that what is right to dream about, is not impossible to realize,” Rama said.
Questions over Rama’s repeated nationalist statements
Many political analysts asked this week why Prime Minister Rama keeps making statement he knows will get a negative response internationally. This the latest in a series — there have been at least five more statements on the same theme — that Albania and Kosovo should join should the EU integration process fail.
Explanations included that the same prime minister who wears tennis shoes to meet the leaders of Germany and France and wears formal attire to visit goat farms is trying to project an outsider’s image in politics – rather being a painter and artist. However, analysts say this paints him as inadequate and hard to work with in international circles.
There are other explanations. Many believe Rama lacks proper foreign policy advisors, for example. But that does not explain this sort of lack of complete regard for international relations etiquette, experts say.
Dastid Pallaska, an opinion maker of some weight in Kosovo, says that Rama does this sort of attention-grabbing to divert attention from the failures of his government. Several Tirana-based experts have reached the same conclusion on the prime minister’s behavior.
On another level, from the moment he came to power, Rama has also pushed to project an image of himself as the leader of all Albanian in the region, a role that has been met with opposition in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and elsewhere.
International community unhappy with Rama
Shortly after it was made, EU representatives commented on Rama’s speech.
Spokesperson for the EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ray highlighted that although Brussels fully supports the integration process of all Western Balkan states, the only common destination between Albania and Kosovo is their European destination.
“Declarations that could be interpreted as political intervention in the sovereignty of neighboring countries do not assist in the establishment of good relations between neighbors,” Ray’s declaration said.
The U.S. Embassy in Tirana issued a statement on Twitter on the matter Wednesday, saying Rama’s statement had the potential to damage relations with the neighborhoods.
“The U.S. Embassy was disappointed by Prime Minister Rama’s remarks about Kosovo and Albania on the occasion of Kosovo’s 10th Anniversary of Independence. Careless language alluding to unification is unhelpful and damaging to Albania’s relationships with its neighbors. We call on all leaders to be good neighbors and abandon the divisive language of the past,” The statement said.
Serbia fuming
A number of Serbian officials also reacted to Rama’s statement and the EU’s position.
Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said he expected a harsher reaction from Brussels concerning what Rama said.
“Rama was straightforward. He said Albania and Kosovo should be a country with a common president, a joint foreign and security policy and no one is criticizing him,” he told Serbian media.
He also drew parallels between Serbia and the Srpska Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Should Serbia also say it should have a common foreign and security police and president with Srpska Republic?” Dacic asked.
According to Serbia’s foreign minister, this situation proves the EU has double standards, as Serbia receives EU criticism despite staying away from undeserved provocations.
Other Serbian officials were even more radical in their reactions, with Minister for Innovation and Technological Development Nenad Popovic saying Rama should be declared a “persona non-grata” , meaning prohibiting Rama entry in Serbia.
Similarly, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin criticized Rama for attempting to create a “greater Albania” .
“Greater Albania must finally, after centuries, be stopped in its expansion. I believe that Kosovo and Metohija in the right place for Greater Albania to be stopped,” Vulin said.
Albanian opposition: Diversion
Head of the opposition’s Democratic Party (DP) Lulzim Basha said Albanians nationwide don’t need an additional politician.
He added that Rama’s statement meant to distract the public opinion from the poverty many families in Albania are experiencing after being illegally denied social assistance.
“They don’t need an additional politician, an additional thief. They need a common energy and telecommunication market. This is the political responsibility of both sides of the border,” Basha said in a declaration for the media.
Analysts’ opinion
Analysts were not as critical in their opinions, yet a prevailing part of them commented on the impracticality and inefficiency Rama’s idea would present in reality.
Iner Mushkolaj, from Kosovo, told local media Rama’s comment aimed to attract political attention, as the PM is aware a joint president is impossible to achieve.
“His statement sounds hypocritical if we take into consideration that both countries have elementary problems in cooperation, starting with customs tariffs,” Mushkolaj said.
According to him, the right strategy for both countries currently is to improve existing treaties and agreements, instead of making far-fetched declarations.
Adviser to former Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, Adrian Prenkaj also said Rama should be focusing on bettering more serious issues, such as removing roaming tariffs of phone calls between the two countries.
“If Rama honestly wants to deepen relations with Kosovo, he can start doing it by making a real assessment on the current level of implementation of agreements reached between the two countries,” Prenkaj said.
And although others, such as Baton Haxhiu, said that Rama’s comment was taken out of context, centering on one sentence instead of his entire ten-minute speech envisioning Albania-Kosovo relations for the following decade, most analysts’ claims are well-grounded to reality.
Kosovo is the poorest country in the region and it still imports three more times merchandise from Serbia than Albania, despite the countries’ shared governmental meetings and agreements on political and economic cooperation.
