Remarks to the media by Prime Minister Edi Rama and the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, following visit to several hardest-hit areas by earthquake in Albania:

Commissioner Janez Lenarčič: I will speak English, because I do not speak Albanian very well, maybe I can speak Albanian in the future.

In the meantime, let me say that my visit here in my capacity as the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management clearly demonstrates that this is a test of EU solidarity with Albania in this difficult moment. We stand by Albania, side by side with you, in this difficult moment following the natural disaster for the Albanians to know that you are not alone.

We understand what the earthquake consequences are, but first of all allow me to extend my condolences to the families that lost their beloved ones in this natural disaster. I also with to express my sympathy with the Albanian people for all the damage caused by the earthquake.

The European Union responded promptly to the assistance request from the Albanian government. Our first teams were already deployed on the same day, Tuesday last week, following the official request made by the government of Albania. We have provided our assistance since that day and on. The search and rescue stage has now concluded and we have now embarked on a second phase that is devoted to the assessment of damages and this stage will lead us then to a third stage which will be devoted to reconstruction.

Allow me to assure you again that all along this process the European Union will stand by Albania. This because Albania is part of Europe. Albania is a candidate country and you should know that we will not let you down. Albania should count on our support in the weeks ahead and then we will be able to start reconstruction process after this difficult experience. We will continue to provide our support in the third phase, which will be the reconstruction phase.

As the new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday, the Commission has already allocated EUR 15 million as an initial contribution to Albania to cover the cost of reconstruction process that is to follow once the post-disaster needs assessment completes.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: First of all, please inform the public properly about the funding that was given yesterday, which is just an initial funding provided with a maximum possible speed for a preliminary phase. So, this is not the overall EU support funding. As always, some of you hasted to report it actually erroneously.

Secondly, as the Commissioner said, the European Commission, the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is committed and engaged with us to have a detailed post-disaster report and based on that report the EU funding mechanism for reconstruction will be put in place for as much as it can cover.

Thirdly, at the NATO summit yesterday, I was pleased to receive the expression of readiness by many participating NATO leaders to take part in a big donors’ conference to ensure collections of funds from various states rather than simply the EU member states. The EC President also affirmed last night that the European Commission will be the coordinator of this major donors’ conference, which we will soon find out where and when it will take place, but of course it is about taking place very soon. I have asked that the donors’ conference takes place no later than January, although it is not up to me of course, but still I am sure we will be able to hold it no later than January.

And last but not least, I would like to emphasize that thanks to the immediate support by the European Commission, thanks to the personal commitment of the Ambassador and the whole EU Delegation here, thanks to the ambassadors of the EU member states to Albania we have today the largest possible number of experts who have joined teams of assessing damages to the buildings. I think their number has exceeded over 4000, but there are still a lot more things to be done. So, I am begging everyone to be patient, because it is crucially important to carry out a complete expertise and prepare a comprehensive report, of course quickly, but not in haste, so that we can now properly and for sure which buildings should be demolished and which ones need to be repaired.

Therefore, in order to give the opportunity any of you who wishes to make questions to the Commissioner, and by saying that as far as I am concerned I would rather prefer to let the Commissioner to answer your questions, because I have to go to the Parliament where we will pass the budget and we will allocate our budget share to support this program, I would give the floor to the Commissioner.

We are talking about major damages, but we are also waiting for the financial estimate. Can we say what is the figure the EU can allocate for the second or third stage of reconstruction?

Commissioner Janez Lenarčič: The first thing that has to happen or that has to be undertaken following the damage assessment, is what I already said, the post-disaster needs assessment. The European Commission is already in contact with the United Nations and the World Bank in order to prepare for this assessment to take place. And only after such an assessment we will get the figure and the number of the needs and then the European Union will continue to stand by Albania in order to contribute to the reconstruction process estimated by those needs assessment.