Prime Minister Edi Rama today met with the EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, also the Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell in Brussels. The meeting was followed by a joint press conference:

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Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell: Dear Prime Minister of Albania, dear Edi Rama, it is a great pleasure to welcome you here in Brussels a few months after we met in Tirana.

I am also happy to see that Albania is steadily progressing on its clear strategic direction towards the EU and demonstrating a clear will to move forward in the accession negotiation process. The integration process relies heavily on the support and engagement of the Albanian government and Albanian people. That is why I emphasized during the discussion with the Prime Minister that we count on transparent and inclusive dialogue with all the stakeholders at a very critical moment- more than critical, a crucial moment for the road to Europe for Albania.

 I am also happy to see that Albania continues one hundred percent alignment with the EU Common Foreign and Security policy, including on the restrictive measures. This is a strong expression of Albania’s strategic choice of our community of values. It has made the country a reliable security partner. 

I am also aware that this position makes Albania a target of hostile action from abroad.  You can also count on EU’s continued support in this regard. 

We are working on a number of actions to help boost Albania’s resilience but also the whole Western Balkan region, against hybrid threats, on cyber security, on countering information manipulation and protection of critical infrastructure. 

Unavoidably, we discussed the EU –facilitated Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and I thank you PM. I thank you Edi for your efforts and support in trying to look for a solution. 

I made it clear and this is also the position of the Member States yesterday at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg that the Parties have to deescalate the situation and to find a way forward based on the European Union’s road map that has been proposed to them and tabled to the parties in Brussels last week. 

We agreed that the situation requires quick moves, requires de-escalation and looking for a solution urgently. I can tell you that the Member States agree on this urgency and they are losing patience in front of the situation that continues deteriorating and requires immediate moves. 

Thanks again, dear Prime Minister Edi, for being here today, for sharing your commitments and support to the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. 

 I am very happy to continue working with you. 

Prime Minister Edi Rama:  Thank you very much High Representative of the European Commission.

Dear Joseph, it was a very helpful moment to talk to you as it was absolutely very helpful to talk previously to the President of the Commission and before her to the President of the European Council. 

Of course, it is very encouraging and energizing to hear good words about what Albania is doing and its process of screening and also in the whole range of reforms we will continue and we are very confident that we will be able to be ready in time for the next step, but in the meantime it was very helpful to talk and share our opinions here for something that is very concerning and in which you personally are working very hard and it has to do not only with the stability of the region as whole but also the whole regional progress, because we are part of a region that has suffered a lot in the past, which cannot at all live with another setback, where the events are not at all disconnected from each other and we cannot just look at our own house and our own homework without wondering what’s going on around and without wondering about the devastating effects that further deterioration of the situation can have not only on Kosova and Serbia but also on the whole region. 

So thank you for sharing together more and more evidence about the loss of patience from the member states and also for raising concern and I very much hope that the idea of the highest level conference will gain traction to bring the leaders of both sides and their teams with the teams of the EU and the US and to not let them get out without a regional agreement, otherwise then face all the consequences of that, which would be very sad for everyone. So I am satisfied that finally we got three policemen out and now it is time for immediate and urgent de-escalation, you have repeated many times this immediate and urgent, but it is becoming more and more urgent, and I am very much committed and Albania is very much committed to continue to work with you, with all our allies and friends not to allow this situation to impact the region in a bad way, because we have so many things to do and we have done so many things, with the Berlin Process we have made a lot of progress, with our initiatives we have made a lot of progress and we cannot let all of this crumble like a sand castle because of some absolutely absurd developments based on totally absurd pretensions. Thank you!