Albanian Premier Edi Rama said on
Saturday he is confident in a positive outcome for the agreement
with Italy on migrant reception and processing in the Adriatic
country, after the Albanian constitutional court suspended its
ratification in parliament pending a decision on challenges to
the plan.
"The Albanian Constitutional Court has done its duty, because
according to the Constitution agreements are suspended
automatically for consideration before they are ratified by
parliament," Rama told the Atreju political festival of Premier
Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party in
Rome.
"It is proof that I do not control the courts in Albania," he
added.
In early November Rama and Meloni signed a Memorandum of
Understanding to set up two centres in Albania to process the
asylum applications of migrants and refugees who have been
rescued at sea by Italian navy, coast guard and police vessels.
The elderly, vulnerable, children or pregnant women, migrants
and refugees who have been rescued by NGO-run ships and people
who land directly on Italian soil are to be excluded from the
deal.
Rama said he is "confident" in the court's assessment of the
agreement because it "has nothing unconstitutional" and that he
expects a decision to be taken "much sooner" than the March
deadline.
"It is a very important agreement and we need both governments
to know whether they can go ahead or not," he added.
Rama told Atreju it would be "pretentious" to claim the deal is
"the solution", saying rather that it represents "an effort to
find solutions where it is clear that European Union (member
states) cannot understand each other".
The Albanian premier also said a "deeper solution" is needed to
the problem of how the West is seen and perceived in Africa.
"However, in the meantime you have to work on solutions that
maybe are not perfect," he insisted, adding that Albania has
received requests for agreements on migrants from other European
countries "but we said no".
The countries in question are "cousin countries, not brother
countries like Italy", he continued.
"There is a difference: if we reach an agreement with a country
like Italy we do it as a common effort, not as a third country
on which to transfer the problem," said Rama, adding that Italy
"is not transferring the problem, but trying to broaden the
space to manage this course while dealing with the problem
itself".
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