BRUSSELS -- The EU has reacted to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's statement about "unification of Kosovo and Albania."
(Beta/AP, file)
Rama earlier this week warned the European Union that Albania and Kosovo will be forced to unite unless the EU opened the path for European integration and abolition of visas for Pristina.
"Since we reviewed what Prime Minister Rama said in the interview, we underline that the Western Balkans has a clear European perspective, determined by the EU at the highest level. All partners in the region have confirmed commitment to this goal and determination to meet the necessary criteria, with full respect for the principles and standards of the EU," Maja Kocijancic said in a statement.
The EU also indicated that its partners in the region "are making progressing each at their own pace on this path," and are "expected to make the necessary efforts for further progress."
According to the statement, these commitments "also include regional cooperation, reconciliation and good neighborly relations," while "all provocative statements in this framework are unacceptable."
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Greece threatens Albania blocking the integration process after Berisha's statements
Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, has expressed his concern at the NATO ministerial meeting about rising tide of nationalism in Albania and premature declarations of the government.
In a press release the Greek Foreign Ministry said that "the growth of nationalism and populism in some of our neighboring countries is a source of great concern."
"I made it clear in every direction that such behavior is unacceptable," Avramopoulos said.
Expressing Greek reaction to these statements, Avaramopulos threatened to compliance with European Union standards for countries aiming Brussels.
"Candidate countries (such as Albania) - if we are talking about NATO or the EU - must respect the principles and values of Europe. The level of demand will not decrease and all terms and conditions will be met, "concluded Avramopoulos.
Berisha has increased nationalist rhetoric, fearful of a possible wave election pro Red and Black Alliance in Albania. He but spoke of the Ottoman borders to Preveza, called to enact 10 million citizens of Albania Albanian, seriously put into question the free movement of Albanians and relations with the European Union.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
U.S. warns Albania against stoking nationalism
TIRANA |
(Reuters) - The United States has warned leaders in NATO ally Albania in
no uncertain terms to stop stoking nationalism in the run-up to an
election because they risk destabilizing the region.Facing a close contest in the parliamentary election in June, Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been ruffling feathers in neighboring states that are home to millions of ethnic Albanians with his increasingly nationalist statements.
Last November, the foreign minister of neighboring Greece boycotted Albanian centenary festivities in Tirana after Berisha hailed a town over the border as "Albanian lands". The president of Macedonia, where a quarter of the population are ethnic Albanians, also stayed away.
In a memo to the Albanian Foreign Ministry reported on Friday by a number of newspapers, the U.S. State Department said Albania's leaders were wading into "potentially dangerous" territory, given the history of ethnic conflicts in the Balkans.
Such remarks "not only promote more inflammatory behavior and distract from this region's priorities, but also potentially incite violence, erode peace and stability, and impact our relationship", it said.
Even more bluntly, it told Albanian politicians to "stay out of the affairs of Serbia", which is in delicate European Union-mediated talks aimed at normalizing ties with Kosovo, whose mostly ethnic Albanian population broke away from Serbia in 1999.
A U.S. embassy spokesman declined to comment on the memo.
HISTORY OF CONFLICTS
Berisha has repeatedly complained of foreign "Albanophobia", and raised eyebrows in Serbia last month when he referred to ethnic Albanian former guerrillas there as "heroes of the Albanian nation".
Ethnic Albanians waged insurgencies in both southern Serbia and Macedonia in 2000 and 2001. Those conflicts were a spillover of the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia after a U.S.-led NATO air campaign halted a brutal Serbian offensive to quell separatism.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008. But poverty, unemployment and a lack of integration continue to fuel discontent among ethnic Albanians across the region.
Washington was the driving force behind Albania's accession to NATO in 2009, and is pressing Tirana to ensure that its election is free of the violence and fraud allegations of previous votes, so that its bid to join the EU can move ahead.
Analysts say Berisha may be responding to the emergence of a new nationalist party called the Black and Red Alliance, a name taken from the colors of the Albanian national flag.
"Berisha is wrong if he wants to build himself a flak jacket made of nationalism to protect him should the elections go wrong," opposition lawmaker and former prime minister Pandeli Majko told Albanian television.
But Berisha defended his approach.
"This nationalism does not have territorial claims," he told a session of parliament on Friday marking Kosovo's fifth year of statehood. "This nationalism is not based on doctrines of extermination, like the nationalisms around us."
(Editing by Matt Robinson and Kevin Liffey)
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