Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka at the conclusion of the official meeting between them:

Prime Minister Edi Rama: First, I want to thank very sincerely the Czech Prime Minister for the warm hospitality, and for the fact that the delegation that welcomed us included the best part of government, all women ministers.

I am very pleased to say that in this respect you have still a lot of work to do, you have very few women in government. We have already 30%, and yet we are not satisfied.

Together with Prime Minister we discussed the great potential that the relationship between our two countries has. For us in Albania, at least for my generation, the Czech Republic is a country with a great attraction power, in addition to being connected to the first moments of the effort to break free from the dictatorship of the past named Václav Havel.

On the other hand, I believe that there must be a strong reason, because we had the highest number of requests for this visit of ours here in Prague that we have ever had on a visit to Europe by enterprises that want to be present at the Business Forum that we have organized together.

I believe very strongly that there is a real possibility for undertakings also to move to another stage. We signed 5 cooperation agreements in the field of tourism. I am pleased to note that every year we see an increase in the number of tourists from Central Europe and the Czech Republic respectively. Lately, in the season that was just concluded, the number has gone up 14 thousand, but the potential is much higher. I take the opportunity to tell those 14 thousand to tell others how beautiful Albania is, that food in Albania is better than in the whole eastern side of the Adriatic, and that in Albania people are as friendly as people in the Czech Republic, when they were a little poorer.

We discussed also what we can do in terms of education, where we have a lot to learn from you. Meanwhile, we have an excellent example of cooperation between the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, respectively the Minister, and I take this opportunity to thank her, and our Ministry of Social Welfare, who crowned today an intensive cooperation for the mutual recognition of insurances of our citizens for pension purposes. In addition, you have an excellent background on the protection of environment and forests. We are very interested to see progress in this direction, taking advantage of your knowledge, and certainly in terms of all those reforms which are related to EU negotiations.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to both the current government of the Czech Republic and the Prime Minister, and to all previous governments, because there has been a constant and resolute support throughout the foreign policy of the Czech to the Albania’s integration in the EU. I hope that the Czech Republic and a number of member countries that have strongly support the opening of negotiations between Albania and the EU as soon as possible, will continue to do this with the same determination.

Finally, I thank the Prime Minister for the encouraging words he said on the progress of the peace process and cooperation in the region. We have made a great progress. I believe that the progress made in a year equals 100 years. Indeed, what was not done in 100 years was made within a year, focusing on the qualitative transformation of relations with Serbia.

Since we are in an atmosphere of qualifications, the Czech Republic has been qualified for the European Championship. We qualified the other night. I can tell you that the images sawn one year ago at the Stadium of Belgrade, and the mass violence against our national team there, belong to a past that will not return anymore. And one year later, we are in totally different conditions, because we offered an excellent hospitality to the Serbian team, and even though we lost the match, we are comforted by the fact that they will watch us on television going to the finals in France.

I thank the Prime Minister for the support of the Czech Republic for Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO. We strongly believe that this is the right step and the right support to strengthen stability, to strengthen interaction. Above all, we strongly believe that this is good also for Serbia, despite we understand belatedly some things in the Balkans. And in this case Serbia will realize over time that it is a good for Serbia. Thank you once again!

We are very grateful and we want to learn from your best experiences, just as we are ready to give our best experiences. Because since you are more involved in the EU, it is important not to forget where you were, and we can remember this to you.

Question: How do you see the current immigration crisis, and the presence of the Russians?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Firstly, I believe that this is a crisis which highlights very clearly what was known, the lack of a strategic and willing Europe to face as a whole with the hottest issues.

Unfortunately, Europe is becoming every year increasingly the target of national selfishness, of the next elections in all member countries. It is becoming increasingly tactical and less strategic. Today’s crisis is only due to lack of a clear common European strategy, and beyond, associated with long-standing developments in Syria. The source is there.

On the other hand, of course, the solution becomes complicated over time but it imposes necessarily cooperation with all concerned forces to fight Islamic radicalism and especially the Islamic caliphate.

I believe that the inclusion of Russia along with a global approach is a must, but certainly it should be based on a clear framework of principles about which NATO’s Secretary General talked yesterday.

I am convinced that it would be of great value for the future if this crisis served as a big alarm bell for Europe itself, for what Europe should do with itself, and for the fact that it is about time to not surrender to anti-European forces who, while proposing solutions apparently very easy for people, are in fact proposing back off and exit from history.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama is paying an official visit to the Czech Republic. He was received at the headquarters of the government and held talks with his Czech counterpart Bohuslav Sobotka. The focus of this meeting was bilateral relations and Albania’s European integration.

The delegation led by the Prime Minister includes the Minister of Economic Development, Tourism, Trade and Enterprise, Ahmetaj, Minister of Youth and Social Welfare, Blendi Klos and Minister of Education and Sports, Lindita Nikolla.

At the conclusion of bilateral negotiations agreements and several memorandums of cooperation were signed between Albania and the Czech Republic:

Agreement on Tourism Cooperation;

Agreement in the field of social protection;

Agreement in the field of education;

Memorandum of cooperation for the management of natural disasters;

Memorandum of cooperation between state agencies for environmental protection.