“The system is fighting corruption” – Rama at the conference with von der Leyen: Determined for EU integration! Presi

Prime Minister Edi Rama held the conference with EC President Ursula von der Leyen after the meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, which lasted an hour.

“Determined for integration into the EU,” the head of government said at the start of his remarks, stressing that Albania is working on closing the integration, negotiation and membership chapters.

“I have also informed the President about the Zvërnec project,” Rama said, among other things, in his short remarks.

He also informed that the fight against crime and corruption is now a priority. “Now the system fights corruption, unlike before, when corruption was the system,” he said.

Prime Minister Edi Rama declared that Albania is preparing to start closing its negotiation chapters with the European Union before the end of this year, while a considerable part of them is aimed to be closed during next year.

At the joint conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Rama reaffirmed the government’s “iron will” to push the integration process forward and praised the EU’s support through the Growth Plan.

“This time too, on the visit to Tirana by the president and her delegation, there is much positive content in relation to our shared objectives. I want to confirm once again, publicly, our iron will to move forward all the work of a process that has now entered the chapter-closing phase. We are preparing to start with the closing of chapters before the end of the year and then to continue next year with a considerable part of the chapters.”

“I want to say that I am very glad that, under a special programme of this period, which is the Growth Plan programme, we have managed to reach some ambitious objectives. The Growth Plan is one of the innovations of her second term, an innovation that has come to the region as great support, not simply in financial terms, but in terms of what is called gradual integration, without waiting for everything to come at the end of the process,” Rama said.