The French Embassy has reacted after the statements of Prime Minister Edi Rama who called the EUs vaccine distribution decision “morally unjustifiable“.
In a letter sent to the Foreign Ministry, the embassy rejected this statement, recalling that the EU is one of Albania’s largest donors.
“Last night in a TV broadcast, Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, clearly accused the member states of the European Union of selfishness and cynicism. This embassy remembers that every year, the EU is the largest donor in Albania with more than EUR 100 million in various sectors. “
The embassy claimed that the information that France has a stock of vaccines that it does not use is untrue. The Ambassador added that a friendly country should not be attacked like this.
Rama responded with a tweet, stating he had not attacked any allies.
“I have not attacked any ally, much less France in this case! I have not forgotten and I do not forget that the European Union has helped Albania since our country came out of the prison of the dictatorship until today. On the contrary, I have valued and continue to value the European Union, for a thousand and one reasons, including without a doubt the invaluable assistance it has given to Albania for 30 years now “.
But the prime minister has adhered to his earlier statement that the decisions of EU member states are “selfish”.
Rama said that leaving out the countries of the region in distributing the vaccine has no justification. He argued:
“I have spoken about a concrete silence in a concrete situation, regarding the vaccine and I do not go back on what I said! Leaving out the countries of our region in the distribution of the vaccine against Covid by the EU, there is no justification…”
