A meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama that was scheduled to be held today in Tirana as part of a visit by a European Parliament delegation to monitor Albania’s EU accession process was cancelled.

In the meeting, New Democracy MEP and member of the indigenous ethnic Greek minority of northern Epirus at the south of Albania, Fredi Beleris was going to be present.

The visit is in the context of a delegation of the European Parliament to Albania for the country’s EU accession negotiations.

The Albanian Prime Minister, however, cancelled his participation and thus the first face-to-face meeting between them will not take place.

Fredi Beleris is an official member of the European Parliament’s delegation to the EU-Albania Parliamentary Stabilisation and Association Committee.

Earlier, MEP Fredi Beleris spoke on the occasion of the series of meetings in Tirana, predicting Edi Rama’s decision not to attend the meeting.

“We will have a series of meetings in Tirana and a meeting with Mr. Rama is on the schedule. It is the first time since my conviction and my adventure that I will meet him, if the meeting takes place. He may send one of his associates,” he said.

“Whoever comes and in all the meetings that we will have here I will put forward our positions which is the right of the minority to self-determination, property, language and education at all levels and all these rights, which are enshrined in international conventions, which Albania has also signed and unfortunately to date they have not been respected,” he noted.

Regarding his possible meeting with Edi Rama, he said: “It is certainly very sad and I will not forget that through coup procedures he did not let me represent the citizens of Himara who elected me mayor. I will never forget that, but now, as you know, with the Prime Minister’s move to choose me as a candidate and with the confidence of the Greek citizens, I am a Member of the European Parliament. From this position I will fight for the same rights, perhaps with greater strength. As far as my personal adventure is concerned, of course I will never forget it but you know how human nature is. When one problem is overcome we go to the next and for me it is important now what we will achieve as Hellenism from now on”.

He stressed that Greece is like taking Albania hand in hand and leading it into the European Union. “Greece is firm in its policy and rightly so for the accession of the Western Balkans to the European Union. The question is what Albania will do. The ball is now in Albania’s court. If Mr. Rama and the Albanian administration want Europe, our common home has rules and they must respect them.”