*Joint press conference by Prime Minister Edi Rama and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen after the International Donors’ Conference:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: Hello everyone!

I am very happy to be here with Prime Minister Edi Rama!

And I am very happy to announce that the international community strongly supports the reconstruction efforts in Albania and I want to thank each and every one of the donors for their generous contributions.

I would like to pay tribute to the resilience that Albania and its people have shown after this devastating earthquake. I want to remind you that 51 men, women and children lost their lives, more than 900 people were injured. Thousands of people lost their homes. Over 300 schools and 30 health centres have been damaged. More than 200,000 people have been affected in the country. Moreover, up to 17,000 people were displaced due to the loss of their homes. This could have happened to any one of us and we owe it to the survivors, who lost their loved ones and their homes, to help them to rebuild their future.

I am proud and glad that the European Union has taken the initiative to organize this International Donors’ Conference in Brussels. Today, the international community has promised here in Brussels to help Albania in its long-term reconstruction and recovery time. Albania is not alone. We will accompany Albania throughout the recovery phase. Albania is for us an important partner and a friend of the European Union, and the European Union stands for solidarity and responsibility.

I am very happy to announce that the European Union – that is the Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Member States together – pledged EUR 400 million. But it is even getting better because today, we exceeded all expectations.

The international community has pledged EUR 1.15 billion for Albania. This is phenomenal. It will fully cover the needs, and I am thrilled about the solidarity that the international community has shown with Albania.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I have to tear the speech I had already prepared prior to the event, or better not since I have to keep and preserve it as something that will remain very important and even more than that,  because it was a follow-up speech of the address I already delivered it has to do with the extraordinary and indescribable gratitude to the President of the Commission, who is key to what we witnessed today and what has practically went even beyond wildest imagination, my greatest expectation.

So Ursula, I thank you very much!

I will never forget your phone call while I was on my way back from the severely damaged area and on my way to join what had remained from a devastated family who practically lost more than two third of its members. I remember very well what you told me that beyond the very kind words of consolation you promised to embark together with me on this effort and you told me that we would not be alone. And really, I would sing the Liverpool anthem for you today, because it is incredibly heartwarming and it is incredibly amazing what we witnessed.

On the other hand, I would say that from all the languages I used to greet the participants coming from all places, we got the biggest donors. And it is amazing how this solidarity spread and unfolded one by one right here at the heart of Europe here in Brussels with the amazing pledge of the European Union and then Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Franca, Turkey, Germany and all the others.

By no doubt, it is not measured by the amount everybody gave away today, but it is the size of the immeasurable solidarity and the heartfelt need to show through the presence and through whatever the amount of the pledge to be part of this very common effort. And it is really one of those moments when one can become somehow mystic and start thinking that something magical has happened, because, as I already said in my thanking remarks, we were thinking that with 40% of the whole sum we would return back home without anxiety, while 50% of the sum we would have called it a success. And when we were teasing each other about something beyond 50%, we were saying this would be a magic.

So, it is magic and I would say that it is so comfortable that beyond this magic there are people, first and foremost the President of the Commission, her fantastic team that I want to thank wholeheartedly, because I know hard they worked with my team and how consistently they coordinated day and night. And of course it is also the participation of many. I know for example that President Macron has been looking forward to this event since the first moment. He sent me today his best wishes and he apologized for not being able to be here. The Prime Minister of Italy who followed the event and sent here a very special one, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. So I though Italy lost Mourinho forever, but they have Di Maio and it is a good replacement. And for sure the Chancellor. I want to extend a big thank you to her, because I know how hard she has worked in her silent way to bring together so many forces for good. Without forgetting President Erdogan and with a great, great gratitude I would like to make a special mention Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, who engaged in the last moment, but full heartedly. Mentioning all these people doesn’t mean that have a less valuable place in my heart and in the hearts of Albanians. It is quite the contrary. And I very much hope to able to pay back through the Albanian hospitality, which is the best tool of “revenge”, when we want to show love and gratitude.

Ursula, thank you very much!

It is also a fantastic moment for everyone to understand that the European Union can get on our nerves, yet it is one of the kind and it is the most incredibly visionary and the most beautiful project the making has ever imagined to bring people together and make politics a force for goods.

Last year saw two earthquakes, the political one in October in Brussels and a physical one that hit Albania last November, whereas very good news has been announced today about what has been done and the pledges for the post-earthquake reconstruction. Do you think we will have good news in March too, given that the Premier is doing utmost efforts to press ahead and deliver on reforms and you the President of the Commission are supporting Albania in its bid to open the accession talks?

Second question for the President of the Commission. You have been helping Albania in holding this conference. Will you also follow where the money will go and how it will be spent and everything else?

EC President, Ursula von der Leyen: We will have an agreement with the government of Albania and we talked about it to make sure respect for the key principles of the reconstruction process. Of course, we are interested in the country’s progress and I have offered and will offer all my support to carry out this reconstruction process together. It is in our common interest indeed to keep Albania as close as possible to the EU.

And to return to your first question, we have been working very hard to pave the way to have this year the success we want. You know that we have just revised the methodology, which provides a way more credibility and trust among all different sides in this common endeavor and which speeds up the process and gives more credibility and perspective for both Albania and North Macedonia that we can move forward to our common goal, that is opening the accession talks. We are working hard on it and I am confident, but I think it is also important that we publish a new country report by beginning of March, so that we can create trust on every side. We have numbers, we have proofs that progress has been made and that there is consistency in the movement towards the European Union.

PM Edi Rama: Now, we of course are trying to absorb the very pleasant shock we were given today and therefore I would avoid talking about and asking for more in March or May or whenever before I find some garlics and hang them on the walls just like an Albanian old tradition has it to stave off the bad eye, because once you receive such great news you should be afraid that something bad my happen. So, let me first find a garlic and then about whether the accession negotiations will open or not, because I don’t want another retaliation from the curse of history.

But, no matter whether the accession talks will formally open or not, you are seeing for your own selves that we are talking and doing great things through talking as this conference. Therefore, we should now embark on this very challenging reconstruction process, because I heard very carefully what President von Der Leyen said by mentioning some of the wishes, which are my wishes and our wishes that what we reconstruct should be better than what it used to be and possibly build seismically-proof houses that also meet ecological standards and so on and so forth. To this end, we should continue to work closely together with our European friends. As you already saw, our American friends didn’t come as usual with a lot of money, but they came with some good arguments on how to make sure this big money is used transparently. We know they are not so generous when it comes to money, but they are generous when it comes to exporting standards. While on visit to the United States, I asked that they put the money or the possible pledge – which was by the way much more generous than I was expecting – for what would be an academy of transparency. An academy of transparency that will start with the reconstruction and will develop as a structure that will monitor standards and will evaluate criteria of public biddings and public procedures.

So, we are in a very good company, as everyone can see, and I am so happy and so humble by all this. We need now not to let our friends down and make Albania’s reconstruction a stunning example. My ambition is that Ursula and the Commission us it as a role model and a success story for possible other situations.

Let me conclude by saying that I am very proud of my team. I am very proud for the presentations that were made today by both the Minister for Reconstruction and also the general coordinator for drafting the post-disaster needs assessment report. I felt so good and I was thinking and I was urged to ask why these very skilled people are not part of the European Union. Again, I am not going to ask for it now. I know we have to work hard and being in good company makes us very comfortable.

The first question to the President. Beyond expression of the incredible solidarity and very moving speeches like yours, the financial institutions have asked from the Albanian government to make full transparency of the funds provided to support the reconstruction and recovery process. Would you ask the same thing from the Prime Minister?

And for the Prime Minister, you mentioned the academy of transparency. Would be this academy accessible by the public, so everybody can see how this money is spent?

EC President Ursula von der Leyen: Yes, I just mentioned that we have agreed on an accord on which we will lay down the key principles of transparency and accountability. And, as the Prime Minister said, it is in our common interest, because we want that this enormous sign of solidarity with the Albanian people is invested in good manner, transparently and in an accountable manner and for that we are of course ready to send our experts in order to implement that in a correct way and we will sign this agreement together and it will be very helpful and a great experience to go through this process, which is in our common interest.

PM Edi Rama: Actually gambling is banned in Albania, but I saw today many people betting on TV screens and I was told about people betting on online news stories that it would be a disaster, because of course they are looking for bad news, which is their daily food. However, they lost their bets. So don’t bet when it comes to my government and our relations with the world.

And secondly I would say that after saying this would be a disaster, as the pledges kept growing they started saying: “Well, they can’t manage it.” But we can and we will manage it, because, as Ursula said, we are already working, not only with the American friends, but also with this institution and we know very well that if you want to find people who make your life very difficult when you spend money, they are they are right here in this building. So, we are sure that Ursula will provide us the best of them and we will go through the necessary pain to make sure that every penny from the European taxpayers’ money, but also the Albanian taxpayers’ money, will be spent well, because it is one program on which we should certainly cooperate, because there are many details now in front of this big sum. It is definitely a big sum for us and it is an impressive sum also for them and therefore we want to make the best of it. So, I would really like to tell you not to worry and enjoy this day. Tomorrow will be another day for other bad news stories.

We saw today that Albania is not alone in the second earthquake that hit the country in November. Would you leave Albania alone after the October 18 earthquake? Would you replace the British flag with the Albanian flag by opening the accession talks?

EC President Ursula von der Leyen: We have worked very hard for this successful international pledging conference after the horrible earthquake and with the same dedication and just the same intensity we are working on paving the way for Albania to move forward in its bid to open the accession talks. And as I already said there are few steps where we can substantially help. As I said, we have revised the methodology which has been accepted by all sides, which a good sign, because the new methodology is more modern, more reliable and it was necessary to show where we are heading together. In the meantime, we are working on the country reports. So these are good arguments to convince everyone that in my view it is now the right time we start the accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia. We have asked a lot from them and they have delivered on their promises. They have done everything we have asked them to do, which is quite a long journey, so it is now up to our side to be reliable partners and work together for a common goal.

*Simultaneous interpretation