Rama: EU passport for Albanians means full equality

Prime Minister Edi Rama declared today, during the "Eye to Eye" segment, in response to followers on social media, that Albania’s EU passport represents a status of European citizenship, CE Report quotes ATA.

Rama emphasized that Albania’s EU passport is a document that proves full equality in freedoms and rights, just like any other European citizen.

"You emigrants, you Zamir, are in Europe, as you say, but not all Albanians in Europe have the possibility of European citizenship, meaning the passport of the country where they reside. Some, fortunately, and may they always be blessed and respected, thanks to their extraordinary work and efforts, are citizens with the passport of the country they live in. But a large portion does not have it. They don’t have it, and they will obtain it through Albania — this needs to be understood, Zamir, it must be understood," Rama said.

According to him, "we're not talking about another travel document. The Albanian passport we have today is a travel document, while the passport I’m talking about — Albania’s EU passport, whose cover says 'EU, Albania – European Union, Albania' — is not just a travel document. It’s a new status of European citizenship for every Albanian. It is the document that proves full equality in freedoms and rights for every Albanian as any other European citizen. What does this mean?"

The Prime Minister added that Albanians with an Albanian passport can travel within the EU but do not have the right to reside or be treated equally with citizens of EU member states.

"With the passport we have today, we can travel, but we cannot stay, we cannot reside. We enter, but we must leave. And for this reason, when we arrive at Europe’s entry points, they put us in a separate line, count us like sheep, and question us one by one: Where are you going? How much money do you have? Have you booked a hotel? When are you leaving? And after you cross that threshold, you have to return. You cannot stay, you cannot work, because you don’t have a residence permit or work permit. If you want to stay, you have to seek asylum. That’s why Albanians are counted as asylum seekers. Meanwhile, Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians move freely, come and go, stay — in southern Italy they constantly leave and return — and no one asks them: ‘Where are you going?’ or talks about ‘depopulation’ or anything else, because they are equal citizens within the EU perimeter," Rama said.

According to the head of government, "upon joining the EU, a country becomes as big as the EU itself. Just as we travel today from Shkodra to Vlora, tomorrow we will travel from Tirana to Lisbon. We will have the same rights. We are no longer foreign students; we are European students."