In a press conference held after his return from Germany, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared that negotiations will open and that no time should be wasted.
There is no doubt that the negotiations will open, the issue is, now, that there are no delays and we don’t lose the momentum the recommendation gave us.
When asked by journalists whether Chancellor Merkel had asked him to arrest former Minister of Interior Affairs Saimir Tahiri, who has been accused of being involved in drug trafficking, Rama replied:
We were in Germany, not Venezuela. They wouldn’t demand an arrest from us, because Germans are well aware that it is not us who make the arrests, but the judiciary.
Rama also addressed the stance of German MP Krichbaum, stating that:
As for Krichbaum, he didn’t tell me personally, but I am not surprised, because that’s his opinion. He is one of hundreds of Bundestag MPs. His opinion holds the weight that it holds, but it does not take me by surprise, and it doesn’t diminish my satisfaction at the results of this visit.
Rama claimed that his visit to Germany was successful:
This visit can be considered as a successful one regarding the fulfilment of the goals we had set, and I am convinced that at the end of it there was a more complete and detailed understanding on the part of every actor regarding the position Albania finds itself today and the complete legitimacy of our request that the German government and Bundestag approve the European Commission’s progress report.
