Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary:

Thank you very much. I will speak in Hungarian so that you can enjoy this language, which is impossible to understand by anyone else except Hungarians.
After six months of efforts, I can say that we have achieved a success, both for us and for the opening of the Schengen area with two other countries. Furthermore, to accelerate our efforts and speed in the enlargement policies and access for the Western Balkan countries. Under the Hungarian presidency, we have managed to accelerate this process, and as far as we are concerned, we are neighboring countries to the Western Balkans and understand the region’s concerns very well. We also understand the importance of stability, peace, calm, and development in the Western Balkans.

We have been waiting for access for nearly 50 years, and this is not the right thing to do. We owe these countries some respect, and this process has constantly had delayed dates with nothing but a blockage. For almost 15 years, we have not seen any significant steps or measures taken toward enlargement. Therefore, we would like all Western Balkan countries to join the European Union.
For the last 15 years, you have heard about the approach based on merit, which has been there despite the slow pace. In the last six months, we have made all efforts to speed up the enlargement process.

As for Albania, since 2009, Albania has applied for membership. In 2014, it received candidate status, and in 2022, negotiations began. The foundation of negotiations started this year under the Hungarian presidency. In just two months, we had two intergovernmental conferences, and two chapters have been opened. This speed is unprecedented. More has happened in these last two months than in the past 15 years. This is a success for Albania, the Hungarian presidency, and the European Union.
Albania has shown excellent progress on the six chapters to be opened, including foreign relations and security. We are opening this chapter today to help Albania move forward because Albania is a NATO member and part of the UN Security Council. When we talk about opening chapters, I believe this chapter is important to open.
The last time we opened chapters with Albania three years ago, we compared the speed and gave a boost for the Western Balkans. It is in our common interest that this country succeeds and reaches its goal.

This is important for both the Western Balkans and Albania. Its membership would strengthen the EU, especially considering the economic progress Albania has made.
Hungarian companies are already present in the Albanian market. One of the largest telecom companies, which plays a significant role in the Albanian economy, is active there.
We joined the EU many years ago, and based on our experience, the Albanian and Hungarian governments signed an agreement long ago to train public administration employees. We hope to continue pushing this forward. Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for the opportunity, and also for the support from the Commissioner.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you so much, I can’t speak in Hungarian yet and I’m aware that there is not yet the Albanian as a language for which translators are paid by the European Union so I’m going to speak in this poor language, English, to say first and foremost that I’m truly happy to be here together with Minister Ciarto, our dear friend Peter again, and also with Commissioner Kos, who has started with the rightest foot possible, because without having yet one month in office, you have already witnessed two big steps forward of two Western Balkan countries, right? But ours is the most important, of course.

So, two months, and we are in March, and it seems unstoppable, but it’s fair to say that all this is happening, first and foremost, thanks to the Hungarian presidency, and to the full force that Hungary and the Foreign Minister himself have put and the Foreign Minister himself have put to their always clear ambition to support the EU enlargement and to bring the Western Balkans closer to the European Union.

Secondly, I’m fully aware that this could not have happened without the full support of the member states that have been very gracious to us, to the point that sometimes I feel like I need to scratch myself, because it’s difficult to put together the picture of until not long ago and the picture of today. But I take it as a as a very clear compliment for the work that has been done and also, we take it as a very strong encouragement, because we are very much aware that we have to do much more. And special thanks to the team of the European Commission, the amazing team of the European Commission, which is telling us and is teaching us how to survive and to survive with a big smile the neurotic work of approaching the European Union. So, all these thanks are absolutely very, very sincere and very heartfelt, because it’s a teamwork, and it’s a joint effort. And putting together all the dots, it’s not an easy task. And people that are within this big family, they know better how difficult it can be. But at the same time, it’s so much fulfilling and maturing learning curve that we can’t ask for better. For us, it’s very clear. We are very much aware that Europe is not united just by geography, but by values, democracy, rule of law, human rights, shared security and in our mind, that has never been a doubt that Europe with the Western Balkans fully part of itself will be stronger, will be more united, and will be more secure. So, our ambition is not a secret. We want to make sure that all our homework is done, and our negotiations are concluded by 2027. And hopefully, our membership is concluded within this decade. It’s very ambitious, but we have shared this together, not only with the Hungarian Presidency, but first and foremost, with the Commission that accompanies us through all the presidencies that we have to work with.

It’s crucial for us to do it by never forgetting or let alone underestimating the principle of merit-based and the principle of merit-based for us is the principle of merit-based for us is very important, first and foremost, because it will help us to do the homework as good as possible for our own sake.

I have repeated times and again that we are blessed to be in the middle of Europe. And it’s a bless that countries that had similar painful history like us and live in other continents and want the same as us to become a thriving democracy and market economy do not have. And that’s why they have much more, much more difficulties to succeed. We have it and this capital of know-how on how to build a state that functions like an EU member state, like on how to build institutions, on how to reform all the sectors, on how to create the conditions for truly separated powers is really a gift for us that live in the middle of Europe and for us that see our future in the European Union. So, we want to make the very best out of it. And I believe that we have all to make Albania the Europe of the Western Balkans. Because for many reasons, we are very well positioned to do so. And for many reasons, we have all we need to capture from this cooperation and from this partnership to do so. And we are very firm in always looking at the past with the eyes of the future and not falling for the contrary, which has been so much detrimental for our region and which has prevented so much our neighborly countries in the Western Balkans to progress as much as they could. So, with all this being said and with the conviction that we are in the best moment in our history and Europe and the European Union is in the best moment to understand how important we, the Western Balkans, are for its future, we have and we will do the utmost out of it and I have to share with you in full sincerity that this moment also disclosed us something that we had started to doubt. European Union has a heart, we can witness that. It can be bigger. But already the fact that it is there, it’s really very, very much relieving.

Thank you!

Marta Kos, Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement:

Dear Prime Minister, dear Minister Szijjártó, dear colleagues, I’m honored to be here today to celebrate another milestone decision for the citizens of Albania and also for us in the European Union.

This is happening on the 17th day of my mandate so today marks a further step forward in the EU-Albania accession negotiations. Two months after the IGC opening negotiations on Cluster 1, today we are opening negotiations or have opened now on a further Cluster 6 external relations.

I would like to thank you, Hungarian Presidency, for your efforts, Mr. Minister, during your term to make this happen and I also wish the incoming Polish Presidency the best luck in this important endeavor in the future.  Yesterday, we told some statistics when we have closed three chapters on Montenegro in the last 12 years. Altogether, including yesterday, we have closed eight chapters in 12 years. So today it was about opening, Mr. Rama, but soon we will start closing too. So, my mandate is less than five years now. I hope we will really close all of them.   Beyond, I also appreciate the strong engagement of all the EU member states during this process, as they have shown today being present at the IGC. Today’s milestone decision sends yet another powerful signal to Albania, the Western Balkan region and beyond. Development remains a top priority for the European Union and we are committed to achieve even further results in the next years. This will make our Union complete, stronger and larger in a challenging and rapidly changing geopolitical context, perhaps also with a bigger heart.

In the current instable international context, opening negotiations on Cluster 6 carries something special. It carries crucial geostrategic importance. It sends a strong geopolitical signal to the region and beyond and it is also a clear recognition of Albania’s full alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy, as well as its role for many years as a reliable security partner on the world stage.  By opening negotiations on this cluster, we will intensify our joint work on crucial areas linked to external relations. Our engagement will ultimately strengthen the capacity of the Union to promote peace, stability and security across Europe and well beyond our borders, acting with impact as a global actor, together with Albania.  We will pursue together the joint objectives of our external action, ensuring that the EU’s ability to protect its fundamental interests and Consolidate security while safeguarding and promoting all our common values with great determination.

I am confident in the determination of Albania to work hard throughout the negotiations. I count on you to intensify your efforts on key EU reforms and remain fully committed to this process. Wide national consensus on this path should be nurtured by making the accession negotiations inclusive and involving not just the government, not just the parliament, but also the civil society, every village, every town.

Negotiations are, as you have stressed many times, dear Prime Minister Rama, transformative process which will have a positive impact on society and the economy, bringing benefits to citizens throughout the process. We will continue to build together a common, prosperous and safe future for our people. ‘’URIME SHQIPERI’’. Thank you so much, Commissioner.

Q&A

Prime Minister Rama, I want to know what will be the conclusion for this cluster bring for Albania and what want to do more to change, because as you know, Albania and the EU in the same line at the foreign and defense policy. And I want to know also which chapter will more difficult to open and to close for Albania. Thank you.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you. Thank you very much. First of all, I have learned that there is no chapter and not even a paragraph that it’s easy with the European Union so, everything has to go through thorough scrutiny and through very close cooperation and through mutual dialogue and mutual understanding.   So, we are looking forward to, as I said, open and open and open the clusters, but in the meantime, we are not eluding ourselves that this will need a very hard work and we will need to prove in every step that not only we stick to what we say, but that we improve in what we do and that’s why I appreciate so much this process, because as the Commissioner very well put it, it helps a lot the country to grow, to mature, to transform and to become something else, to become a state where institutions are much more important than everything else, where the whole system works as a guarantee for democracy, rule of law, human rights and all the rest.

As for this cluster we opened today, of course, it looks like the not difficult one, because Albania has been always very keen to align with the EU foreign policy, with the EU security policy and everything else. Because the Albanian people are very much supportive of that and we have made a very clear-cut choice as a nation that we want to marry with the European Union and forget about all the bitter divorces of the past.  So, there’s no way back. There’s only way forward. And we have to give to the Albanian people what they are looking forward since not just decades now, but since centuries.

And I want to conclude by bringing here a very famous and kind of emblematic line of a national poet of Albania, who is the poet of our renaissance, that wrote for Albanians, ‘’The sun rises where it sets, in the West’’.