Albania hosts for the first time in the region the Ministerial for European Higher Education and the Bologna Process, organized by the Ministry of Education and Sports with the participation of the highest representatives of the field from the European Higher Education Area (EEA) and other countries from all over the world.

This important event that will take place over two days aims to reaffirm the fundamental values ​​of education, including academic freedom, institutional autonomy and quality assurance in higher education.

The discussion panels with a variety of topics will focus on the issues of innovation, quality and social dimension in higher education, the implementation of commitments of the Bologna Process, the encouragement of international cooperation, the assurance of the quality of higher education, etc.

At the start of today’s work, the Minister was greeted by Prime Minister Edi Rama, who said, among other things, that “the time has come for us to build a NATO of education. We need an organization like NATO, but for education”.

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Good morning everyone and welcome to Tirana!

I do not know if I should read the speech they prepared for me, as it would be another boring lecture and I am sure you do not need any more lectures.

I would like to say a few words and I will try to be a good host to you, first by thanking you very much for coming and being here with us. For us this is a truly humbling moment, to be the first country in this region to host you in this very important forum.

Secondly, I would like to especially thank the delegation from Ukraine for coming, and we all know why I do this.

And last but not least, I would also like to thank the president of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey who has honored us with his presence, as well as the Minister of Education of Hungary and I simply singled out these two honorable friends, as we are grateful for everything these two countries are doing, together with us, to help us in this journey of ours, to build our education system properly and to learn more from the best.

Both Turkey and Hungary were countries that came to us faster than the European Union, while we hardly expected to have access to the European area of ​​higher education, which we are very pleased that has now happened. Our country, our countries of the Western Balkans, can be part of this potential and all those opportunities offered by the European area of ​​higher education, thus having the opportunity to use all the great knowledge that exists in this area.

Without wanting to go into the depth of these issues, I would like to take a moment to thank Federica Mogherini from the bottom of my heart and congratulate her on the security architecture of the European Union, in the field of education, because of course the future cannot be protected by weapons, but by knowledge.

So weapons are important at a certain moment when life is at risk, but when you see that the democratic world has had the opportunity to use much money to resist an aggression and meanwhile the field of education unfortunately continues to remain as a part of these budgets that are used, this thing should make us think once more about this issue, to reflect and of course what I will say will not be taken by many as anything other than provocation, but I think the time has come for us to build a NATO of education. We need an organization like NATO, but for education because what we see more and more is that hatred as well as disagreement with democratic institutions is increasing in all corners of the globe and is based on a system that feeds this thing.

I am not sure that our system of resistance, is the same as the one that we will use, for example, the pride that we have or the dedication of young people, for our values, for our democratic world and for example, in the event that in our imagination, we could think of confrontations of new generations from both sides, fear that our generation is less prepared to face the other side, the other side in case it was time to fight for the values ​​that our world has and for which we have worked hard and which are now being challenged more and more by really strong forces.

The last thing I want to say is that we have to decide once and for all how we are going to deal with the past, but also how we are going to deal with the future. What is worrying is that our future is being defined by the past and increasingly is being used as a point of reference, as a source of inspiration, as an impetus to imagine the future. While I humbly believe that it should be the opposite and the opposite will save our democratic world. The future must control the past. It will have to be the future that will decide what the past is for all of us because the future, I believe, is the only place, where we can find more reasons to be together. While the past continues to be a place where we can find reasons to be divided.

So with these words I would like to pass the word to the academics, I myself am an artist, I have no academic title, but the truth is that I am very conscious of the difference between my level and yours, so I am passing the word to the high-level ones. I hope I have not been boring to you, and I sincerely hope that beyond the intellectual and academic debates that you are forced to do in this hall, that you have time to go outside a little, where you will also find the best part of our country and where you will find the best source of joy for you. I hope that the organizers have treated you well and that when you return to your countries, you will miss Tirana, you will miss the food, everything else you found here.

I apologize that we have not had the chance to get just one sunny day, we tried, I assure you of that, but I am sure many of you who come from cities with only gray skies do not mind that much.

So thank you once again and I wish you all success in today’s work. I would like to thank the EU Commissioner for Education, she comes from a city with gray skies, yet more knowledge, a capital with knowledge.

Thank you!