As part of the global Future Investment Initiative (FII) Forum taking place in Rome, Prime Minister Edi Rama took part in a conversation with Eleni Giokos, where he addressed current geopolitical developments, Albania’s European integration process, and the prospects for strategic investments in the country.

During the discussion, the Prime Minister underlined the importance of strengthening Europe’s political and decision-making role in the face of global challenges, while reaffirming Albania’s commitment to membership in the European Union as a strategic and unwavering objective.

 

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-Prime Minister Rama, really good to have you with us.

I want to talk about, you know, fantastic news. We’ve got the signature now on this MOU. We’ve seen some of the details on that.  But I wonder if you take a step back, because the Strait of Hormuz has become that flashpoint. Do you believe that European countries, globally, or other allies, should have stepped in to open up the Strait of Hormuz? You’re a NATO member. Do you think that was a miscalculation?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, you asked me to come here as one of the tourism champions, and I would very much love to focus on the bright side of life.

The Strait of Hormuz is for these guys and for some other big guys. When it comes to us, Albanians, we are very, very good friends with everyone in the Middle East except the criminal regime of Tehran.

So we wish really the best, especially for our brothers in the Gulf countries. But I was thinking in which hotel with five stars in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Albania, someone would give you this bottle without the glass and would say to you Welcome to our conference.

This is how Europe is behaving lately in an inertia that says we have everything, we don’t miss anything, we are gonna be always great no matter what and at the same time losing exactly what the others are catching up big time.

So, I believe that when it comes to Europe and Europe’s role, everything is said very clearly. What is needed, what Europe has, what is missing, but there is one thing that in fact is the number one problem of Europe and that Europe is not being able to tackle, which is politics.

So the capacity to have a common vision, the capacity to take common decisions, the capacity to implement in time everything that is decided.

So when it comes to your Hormuz thing, it’s sad to see how Europe, again, is in and out, is there and is not there. Also, when it comes to the biggest crisis Europe has faced since the Second World War, the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Europe standing with Ukraine is the right thing to do, but Europe not talking at all to Russia, for so many years, says a lot about what is the problem Europe has to face is politics, political capacity and decision.

-You’re an EU member candidate right now. Everything you’ve just described is some of the weaknesses that Europe is facing. Does that still align with what your aims are?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Well, listen, I talked about Europe, and I talk about Europe as a very convinced European because I think that Europe, the European Union, is the most beautiful and the most amazing and brave imagination of humans when it comes to politics.

It’s the most wonderful political project ever created by humanity. And the potential is absolutely great.

So, of course, there are problems in Europe, but I always say we are in love with Europe.

So, I’m sure many people here know that when you are in love, everyone will tell you, Don’t rush to marry because we know how it is. But this will not prevent you from marrying. You want to marry, and we want to marry in Europe because it’s the right place to be. Then how things will unfold is another story. But we want this marriage. We are obsessed with it, and we’ll get there, no matter what, and sooner rather than later.

-Fantastic. And you’ve been engaged for a long time.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: So, you know, the problem is even worse. We haven’t been engaged for a long time. We have been in love for a long time, like Romeo under the closed window of Julia, and then Julia appeared. But Julia’s parents told us, you are good. We’re going to give a thought about it. And then one day we’ll decide to start talking again.

So we fought to start talking. Now we are talking, and through the talks I hope we’ll marry.

-Always interesting analogies, Prime Minister. Let’s talk about tourism investment in Albania. And one that has ignited massive debates around politics, influence and capital. You have seen, and we’ve all seen, the protest action in Albania in the capital city. The EU Commission has warned Albania to ensure that it sticks to environmental rules. We’ve seen pushback. There’s a lot of stuff out there, Prime Minister, so take me through.

Where you stand right now. What’s the status of this luxury resort and investment, $4 billion worth?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you so much for this question, because I’m sure many people here are interested, given the digital outrage that has spread worldwide. And let me just give you some very quick background. Albania, when I got into office, it was a country with less than 10 billion euro GDP and around 2 million tourists, among which also the prime minister and everyone else were counted as tourists every time they re-entered the country after going somewhere.

So, I mean, Albania last year ended with more than 27 billion in GDP and with 12 million tourists. Our foreign direct investments have been in the range of 300 million when I took office, and last year they went beyond 1.6 billion, which is quite relevant for a country like ours.

So we have now jumped into another league in many ways.

So, since a great visionary from the Middle East, whose name is Mohamed Alabbar, came to Albania and dared to offer to our country a bigger vision than the usual small investments, Albania became a place where people started to look differently at the level of big business and investment. And so we are now in a moment in time when we can go through with the biggest investment in tourism in all of Europe, which is more than 4 billion euros, and an investment that has been thought since the first day as a way to showcase that nature and people can coexist and that a possible regenerative life for nature and for people is the way through.

So, the best architects, best landscape designers, and best water engineers have been involved in this project. That will be for sure, so beneficial to Albania. Yesterday evening, I was asked by almost everyone, What’s wrong with you people? You know, everyone would like to have this.

But on the other hand, I have to say this, to me, the fact that there are people in Albania nowadays who get in the street and protest in the name of nature and in the name of protecting birds is amazing. It’s amazing for a country that, until a decade ago, was a destination for

hunting barbarians, tourists with rifles that were being smuggled into the country and coming from this country and other Western countries to kill big time birds and animals with no control, or 10 years ago, Albania was a place where the forests were full of the noise of the machines that cut trees.

So, we went through moratoriums of 10 years for cutting trees and for hunting. We have tripled the population of birds in Albania and so on. And we’ll go through. But one thing I want to say here.

The digital outrage, of course, has been provoked mostly because Kushner and Trump, shadow behind, are enough to bring a lot of people from a lot of ways of life, from a lot of continents, just jumping, the amount of falsehoods, the amount of fake videos, the amount of videos that were taken from protests in different countries and were pushed as protests in Albania.

The number of bots that have been entering there from our enemy. We have an enemy. We have only one enemy, which is the Khomeinist Republic of Iran, and they have been engaged for three years in a ruthless cyber attack against Albania. And they also entered this game. The amount of craziness that has its something that I want to say is corroding from within our democracies, bringing European and European perimeter in some paths that sooner rather than later will destroy the sense of politics, the sense of decision-making, the sense of compromise in our part of the world.

So this is what I have seen from that. And it’s time that democracies stop believing that the freedom of reach is an extension of the freedom of speech.

The freedom of reach is what every regime through every propaganda has done to go in every brain and to put the lie in the brain.

-Thank you for that context. And we’ve run out of time. I’m gonna give you quick five questions, just yes or no. Has the land already been bought by the investors?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, don’t go there because you remind me now that you are from CNN. Let’s stick to the facts. I hate to say that, in this, I’ve learned the hard way that you are not an objective source, but you being Greek makes me feel an obligation to not go there.

So, yes, the land has been bought by the investors. Yes, it’s private land. Yes, an environmental impact assessment is ongoing. Yes, there is not yet a project being approved. Yes, there is not yet a building permit. Yes, there is nothing that has to worry, has to make worry any environmentalist that think right. And yes, Albania will go forward, and Albania cannot save Europe in only one thing: social media. If social media continues to be given a free ride, Europe will collapse from within, and then the shields against missiles and against rockets will be worthless because there will be nothing to protect.

–Prime Minister, very quickly, the EU Commission says, you’ve got to stick to the environmental rules they want. You’ve also got the issue with protests. So how are you going to change the message so it resonates with the protests and protesters and ensure that the EU Commission is on your side?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I have news for you. The majority of the Albanian people want the project. Where the project is going to happen is a city that is in a very large majority looking forward to the project, and there is no protest.

The community where the project is going to be developed wants the project. So what you see is not exactly what is going on.

The outrage is there, I understand, but when it will fade away and when I will send a very special invitation to CNN to come for the opening, everyone will be happy, and I’m sure that it will be a great chance for CNN to redeem.

-Redeem? Our job is to ask questions.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: You need redemption. You need redemption towards Albania, the Albanian people, and even the birds. You need a moment of redemption. Because the birds, the waters, the trees, and everything will be much better than it is today. The project aims to have a net positive of 25% greener than it is today. Today, the waters of the lagoon are infectious, and we will have a completely different system to make the waters clean again, as you say in the United States. Clean again, not great again.

Thank you.

-Well, thank you for clarifying all of that.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, I thought you were thanking me for the invitation. This is most important.

-Are you inviting me? I don’t know. Our job is to ask questions, and your responses are always very welcome.

 Prime Minister Edi Rama: The problem is not the questions. The problem is the spin. And I will tell it all the way because I haven’t had the possibility to tell.

I was a guest on CNN, I had an interview and fair enough, all of them who think differently had their time. But for the anchor who invited me as a guest to publish in her profile a statement that was offensive, not critical, offensive to me is really something. That’s why I think Albania owes this lost soul the possibility to come, kiss the birds and redeem, and we’ll do it.