Whenever Aleksandar Vučić is isolated, Edi Rama is ready to come to his aid (even to the detriment of Kosovo)

The article published in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" by the Prime Minister of Albania and the President of Serbia is not a manifesto of two statesmen for EU membership, nor a pledge for reforms, but an elegy of two troublemakers who are actually giving up on their great ambition because they know that on this path they are the biggest obstacle as a result of endless corruption scandals.

In their joint article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić send the message to the EU that they are willing to accept a second-class membership because they do not believe that full membership is possible. They blame the EU for this. They say that the region has changed in an unimaginable way. They emphasize that when it comes to EU accession, Albanians remain optimistic, Serbs are skeptical.

True - the region has changed, but not everywhere for the better. Serbia today is an autocratic state, with limited media freedom, no independent judiciary, and rampant corruption. More than ever, Belgrade is being criticized by the EU for regressing in many areas.

Why are Serbs skeptical? Because the anti-Western campaign of the Vučić regime, as well as its closeness to Russia and China, have further strengthened anti-EU sentiment in Serbia. A minority supports EU accession, while the majority dreams of a Russian-Serbian brotherhood. Belgrade has become a center of Russian espionage. Many actions of Russian agents in the region and beyond are coordinated from there. A few years ago, a meeting of the Russian opposition in Belgrade was wiretapped by Serbian authorities and the recordings were handed over to the Kremlin. When the oppositionists returned to Moscow, they were immediately arrested.

Albania faces many difficulties and suffers from the corruption of Edi Rama's government and party, but Albanian society is not anti-Western. Here lies the big difference with Serbia.

By extending a hand to an autocrat fighting for political survival - and such is Vučić - Edi Rama once again proved that there are two constants in his foreign policy: telling patriotic tales regarding Kosovo and cultivating an unapologetically embracing relationship with the leader in Belgrade.

The article in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" does not contain anything new. Edi Rama has said this before that he wants Albania to enter the EU without full rights. Why should he say this together with Vučić? Whenever the Serbian autocrat is in difficulty, Edi Rama is ready to come to his aid. When the EU asks Vučić to impose sanctions on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, the Albanian prime minister asks Brussels and other powerful capitals not to put pressure on Vučić.

In September 2022, a few months after Russia launched a war to occupy all of Ukraine, Rama told the Austrian newspaper “Die Presse”: “We must do everything we can to keep the potential threat away from the Balkans. Therefore, there should be no more pressure on Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia. Such sanctions are not possible, because Serbia cannot survive without Russia. In addition, the government and President Aleksandar Vučić would not survive sanctions against Russia politically. Serbia has already taken a stand. We must not forget that Belgrade has already voted against Russia three times in the UN. This is a big surprise. It is also a sign that there is a strong will in Belgrade to integrate into the EU.”

There are so many untruths in this statement. Serbia can survive without Russia. Serbia cannot survive without the EU. Serbia's trade volume with the EU is over 60 percent, with Russia under 5 percent. Serbia has voted in the UN for resolutions supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine, but its vote has not been anti-Russian, as Rama claims. Serbia's vote has been such with a clear purpose: we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and we expect the world to support the territorial integrity of Serbia (including Kosovo). What is incorrect is when Rama says "that there is a strong will in Belgrade to integrate into the EU". That will no longer exist in 2022, it does not exist today either.

Serbia sold its oil industry to Russia just a few months after Kosovo declared independence in 2008. And it sold it for a very low price, according to experts. For only 400 million euros. This bargain was not made for economic reasons, but for political reasons, because since then, Russia, with its veto, blocks any initiative for Kosovo in the UN Security Council. In recent months, the situation has changed thanks to the United States of America, which has put great pressure on Serbia to take ownership of NIS from the Russians. The Hungarian company MOL has expressed its willingness to buy the Russians' shares in NIS for over 1 billion euros. Although it was forced to take the oil company from the Russians, Vučić is surviving politically. Every day he offends European parliamentarians, the parliament controlled by his party has passed a law that eliminates the last vestiges of independent justice, and through a wide-ranging operation is also trying to bring independent media under control.

The Albanian Prime Minister could write a joint text with his Montenegrin counterpart, because it is Montenegro that is most likely to join the EU, not Serbia. But Rama treats Montenegrin leaders with contempt and mocks them in international forums.

In the middle of this week, Aleksandar Vučić said: “I do not intend to accept any kind of recognition of Kosovo. (...) I do not intend to discuss Kosovo with Marco Rubio, nor with Saint Peter. Kosovo is Serbia, it has been and will be, and this is where the discussion ends”. At the end of the week, Edi Rama rolls out the red carpet for Vučić, writes a text with him, takes him by the hand and tries to present to the European public that politician with a velvet jacket who believes and works for European values. Such lobbying for Serbia is truly unprecedented in the recent history of Albania. That Kosovo is not mentioned at all in the text of the President of Serbia, Edi Rama, and the Prime Minister of Albania, Aleksandar Vučić, is not surprising. Many EU countries have the position that Serbia must accept Kosovo before entering the EU. Does the Albanian Prime Minister also believe in this or is he trying to pave the way for Serbia towards a second-rate membership, but without recognizing Kosovo?

Edi Rama continues to have a dismissive approach towards Kosovo. Before the EU imposed unjust punitive measures against Kosovo (proposed by the pro-Serb mediator and Jeffrey Epstein friend, Miroslav Llajcak), Edi Rama canceled joint meetings with the Kosovo government. It has not happened even during the time of Enver Hoxha that Albania has been the leader in punishing Kosovo. Such disgraces occur with Edi Rama. In June 2023, he single-handedly submitted a draft statute for the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities to Germany and France. Without any consultation with Kosovo. Rama may cultivate the habit of hating because the Prime Minister of Kosovo during his political adventures wanted to make a political career in Albania as well, but that phase has ended, so there is no reason for the belittling approach towards Kosovo to continue - in words and deeds. For example: when he calls northern Kosovo “no man’s land” (as he did in October 2023, a few days after the terrorist attack by a gang directed from Belgrade). Earlier there was his adventure with the “Open Balkans”, a pretense together with Vučić that produced nothing, although Rama declared that “the EU, Germany, France and the USA are sad that Kosovo is not part” of the “Open Balkans”. This project has now been buried, after it was also opposed by the Kosovar parties that are now in opposition. No one is sad, the states have returned to the framework of the “Berlin Process”, where Kosovo is treated as a state and its representatives sign on behalf of the Republic of Kosovo.

The article published in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" is not a manifesto of two statesmen for EU membership, nor a pledge for reforms, but an elegy of two troublemakers who are actually giving up on their great ambition (membership) because they know that on this path they are the biggest obstacle as a result of endless corruption scandals.