Romano Prodi says if negotiations are not opened to Albania, there will be negative consequences for the EU

Prodi speaking at "Tirana Connectivity Forum"

 Former President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, speaking at the "Tirana Connectivity Forum" on the future of the region and relations between the countries, said that there is no reason to stop the enlargement of the European Union. Speaking specifically about the case of Albania, Mr. Prodi, who led the EC from 1999-2004, stressed that there is no real obstacle to not opening EU membership negotiations.

"It is clear that we can not have one or two former republics of the former Yugoslavia in the EU or exceptional cases like Albania to be left out, while we have Bulgaria, Romania or Slovenia inside.

There is absolutely no reason to stop the enlargement, of course, we have to be strict, set the preconditions from the democratic aspects, but it is clear that the process should start as otherwise it creates vacuum and misinterpretation and you can then prepare for negative reactions with consequences for the future.

There are no economic or democratic problems to start the negotiations, so the analysis of the reforms that need to be done in order to finalize the process must be started in a short time. If you tell me what are the obstacles? There are no obstacles! "Our future is very near but we do not complete this process", declared Mr. Prodi.

Speaking about the 'negative reactions' and 'consequences' of Albania's non-rapprochement with the EU, the former EC leader referred to the interest of China and Turkey in having strong ties. Mr. Prodi said that China is increasingly showing interest in investing in Europe and this said it is a good thing for both parties, he also spoke about Turkey's interest in Albania, emphasizing that he does not see it as a bad thing, but the relationship is not comparable to the EU in terms of trade and long-term interest.

Regarding the relations between Italy and Albania, the former Prime Minister of Italy said that the two countries do not have the necessary political ties to respond to the closeness of the communities of the two countries.

"Regarding Albania and Italy, this is a special case, we have 700 thousand Albanians living in Italy, 20% of the Albanian population lives in Italy. We are brotherly countries and we need to institutionalize this connection. At the beginning of the emigration of Albanians, we had tension, accusations, and now the Albanian community is part of Italy.

From an economic point of view there are no problems but we do not have the necessary political connections to respond to the proximity of our communities. 

"Southern Italy can not progress without close ties with Albania and Greece", underlined Mr. Prodi.