Berisha: Rama and Vučić blame the EU for integration delays

2025-07-16 13:46:00, Politikë CNA

Berisha: Rama and Vu?i? blame the EU for integration delays

The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has criticized the approach of Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? towards the European integration process.

Opposition leader Sali Berisha accused Rama and Vu?i? of blaming the European Union for the delays, instead of looking at meeting integration standards. According to him, ideas such as the 'Open Balkans' have been used to avoid genuine commitments to European values and to cover up the lack of political will for real reforms.

"I want to say that the European People's Party is offering great help. President Weber was at the last political assembly and he said that he will send a fact-finding mission to Albania. David McAllister is providing his assistance. So we are encouraged because their fact-finding mission will be very important to shed light on our concrete cases and to reflect them in Brussels.

There is undoubtedly enlargement fatigue, because the more the EU expands, the more difficult it becomes to manage. But this is not the reason for the delays in the accession of the Western Balkan countries. It is difficult that there was a moment when the idea of offering a partnership to the Western Balkans was born, but it lasted very little, and the Berlin Process aimed to bring them closer to the EU. The problem is that the autocrats of the region started with new projects.

We often thought that neither Rama nor Vu?i? were interested in integration. They cursed and blamed fatigue and invented the 'Open Balkans'. They threatened other options, and did not respect the fundamental principle of EU integration, which is not EU fatigue which had slowed down the Balkan integration process.

We know that it is not a fast process, but it is an unstoppable process. It was an ongoing process. These people, by raising the thesis of European fatigue and blaming Europeans for the slow process, allowed themselves not to worry about principles and standards.

They followed this path. I think that no one should listen to them for fatigue issues. Of course there are problems. Within a large and extended family, there are definitely problems and no one denies it, but the Balkans has turned from a place of wars into a protectorate of crime.

The Balkans itself has its own problems and cannot blame others for the wars it went through, nor for the criminal protectorate that has returned. So in my opinion, we should maintain the idea of respecting standards and the rule of law. This is the most essential value”, declared Berisha./ CNA