On the country’s EU candidate status Rama said: “The ghost is the past around or our generation will make it in the right way and will all unify with Europe and it will be over or the ghost of the past will take over.”

Rama vowed to tackle corruption and organized crime: “We don’t have corrupt judges, we have a totally corrupt judiciary which works like a corporation, like a for-profit industry.”

The former Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports and Mayor of Tirana was elected Prime Minister in 2013. Rama has also been the head of Albania’s Socialist Party since 2005. Albania's population of three million is one of Europe's poorest and the country is still in the bottom half of the global Corruption Perceptions Index.

British journalist Tim Sebastian invites national and international decision-makers to his weekly DW show. “Conflict Zone” airs every Wednesday at 17.30 UTC and will be available online on-demand.