TIRANA, May 2 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected on Wednesday the allegations of Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj that Rama had pressured him to cancel the full tariff of Serbian and Bosnian goods during the Berlin summit on Monday.
Prime Minister Haradinaj told T7 television after the meeting that the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Edi Rama had pressured him more than others.
Through a Facebook post, Rama said that “as a rule, leaders do not publicly comment on the conversations among them, especially informal ones, much more without previously agreeing and then distorting, lying to come out as “good men” in front of their people, as if they were selling meat in the bazaar.”
He wrote among other things that no one has pressured Haradinaj to abolish the tariffs.
“Definitely not me, but not even nobody else has asked him to remove the tariff. Definitely not me,” Rama repeated.
Further on, he wrote that “Chancellor Merkel and President Macron have urged an informal discussion in the lobby over the resumption of dialogue, and I have intervened only once, saying that they should enter the process themselves. They further sought more patience and for Ramush not to give up the tax, but simply to give his consent for a temporary tax suspension, for six months or even for four months, pledging to enter the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue process themselves. Both in person, the chancellor and the president!”
“I have suggested to Ramush in two moments to accept their request because I have thought and continue to think that direct involvement at the highest level of Germany and France, the axis of the European Union, appeared as a new and very favorable opportunity for them to put forward the issue of finalizing the dialogue, at the highest possible level,” writes Rama among other things.
Haradinaj, however, said on Thursday after the Kosovo government’s meeting that he will always tell the truth about the talks with Serbia, because it is a matter of national interest.
“Requests to suspend fees are not new and positions are not new to some of them, but my attitude is not new so it’s stable, there is no change and it will not have, so there’s no reason be discussed anymore. Then this one of the Prime Minister (Edi) Rama, for me Albanians left and right are my siblings and I owe the truth, what Mr. Zef Pllumi said, “to the market” I will tell you the truth even when he likes it when he does not like someone because we are obliged to our citizens,” said Prime Minister Haradinaj
Monday’s meeting in Berlin, organized by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron ended with the agreement to hold a new meeting of the same format on July 1 in Paris, but did not open the way for the resumption of the process of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, which was the central issue of the discussions.
Talks were suspended in November last year after Serbia’s reaction to the Kosovo government’s decision to set 100 percent tariffs on Serbian and Bosnian imported goods.
Belgrade demands their removal as a condition for resuming talks, while international pressure failed to convince Haradinaj to suspend them.
