Prime Minister Rama took part in the “Berlin Global Dialogue,” an event that brings together international leaders from politics, business, and academia, with the mission of fostering and promoting dialogue on key areas shaping the future of the global economy.
Prime Minister Rama was invited to the dialogue table opposite the renowned moderator Ali Aslan, together with the Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Diella, who for the first time responded live to the moderator’s questions.
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Ali Aslan: Prime Minister, welcome to Berlin, it’s great to see you.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yeah, it’s great to see you here also. You are everywhere.
Ali Asllan: So are you. You and I, have shared the stage on many continents, on many countries. I believe this is the first time actually you and I share the stage here in Berlin.
So welcome to the city. I know the city is very close to your heart.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yeah, it’s now it’s closer with you.
Ali Aslan: Well, I don’t know what to do with all these compliments in the morning, but I take them.
And I tell you what, Prime Minister, if I had known you’re going to wear a tie, I would have worn one. You threw me off a bit here.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: This is what I do with you all the time.
Ali Aslan: You do. Well, let’s get down to business. Prime Minister, it’s great to have you with us. The session is titled Disruptive Solutions for Turbulent Times, Reinventing Governance and Business. Before we get down to business, I think it’s safe to say that you’re having a good year. You’re on a roll. You’ve just got re-elected and are embarking on an unprecedented fourth term.
First of all, congratulations on your re-election.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much. Yes, we’re having a good year. If we put it in the context of Europe and of how things are going in general, we’re having a very good year.
Ali Aslan: Yeah. And the numbers speak for themselves. Obviously, aside from your re-election, your country is an official EU candidate country. It opened negotiations with the European Union in 2020.
And according to the EU officials, the screening process is progressing very, very smoothly. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, who will be joining us later here today on the stage, is saying Albania is on the right track. She said it at the EU Western Balkans Investment Summit in Tirana.
And the EU enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, said EU accession talks with Albania progress faster than ever.
That’s very good news.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yes, but your research is a bit outdated because the screening process is over. And as a matter of fact, in the last 11 months, we have opened five of the six clusters.
We are looking forward to open the last cluster, hopefully before the end of the year, which will be practically a record in terms of speed in this process. And we are very encouraged by that. Europe in this moment in time is completely awake, which was not the case until some years ago.
Unfortunately, for this awakening to be needed, this horrible, brutal aggression against Ukraine, but now we can see a big difference.
Before, the EU was just saying that the Western Balkans is geopolitically very important, but it was just words. Now also the deeds are also showing that there is a real engagement to bring us closer.
This is not only on the level of the Commission, which, to be very fair to the Commission, it has been the case also before, but also on the level of the Council and of the Member States.
Ali Aslan: And you’re right, of course. Instead of saying screening process, I actually meant that Albania opened and closed many more chapters than ever before.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: This is why I like you. You are always self-improving.
Ali Asllan: Very much so. In real time, as a matter of fact.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You have an intellectual modesty that is not typically German, but I love it.
Ali Asllan: Might be the Turkish roots. I don’t know what it is.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I’m sure it’s the Turkish roots. I’m 100% sure. I didn’t want to say it bluntly, but you said it.
Ali Asllan:We’re in Berlin, Germany. Don’t forget that right now. We are amongst the domestic audience.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, but we are also part of this, you know, because without us, they are in a very bad place.
Ali Asllan: Well, I tell you what, Prime Minister, the opening and, more importantly, of course, the closing of chapters at a record pace in Albania is very good news for Albania, but also for the European Union. You said it yourself.
The Western Balkans are no longer seen as a backwards part of the region, part of the neighbourhood. Now you have become an integral part of Europe’s future. Geopolitically, that’s an important step.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, I’m not sure that everyone has a clear picture of the map of the European Union. I mean by that, in the history of maps, the European Union is the only geographical and geopolitical reality with two borders.
Typically, every geographical and geopolitical subject has one border, the outside border. EU has two borders, one outside border and one inside border, and within the perimeter of the inside border is us.
So, we are somehow the umbilicus of the European Union. And hesitating to unify with this part is absolutely not a good idea. So I strongly believe that for all the good reasons, it’s the EU that needs the Western Balkans as part of its own reality as much as we need the EU for sure.
Ali Asllan: Yeah, and I think looking at the globe and recent geopolitical events, which you have mentioned, I think everybody can underscore and underline what you have just said. Interestingly enough, I remember when you and I shared the stage in Slovenia once, you told me about the future of the Western Balkans, and that you are tragically optimistic about the future of the Western Balkans. Can we strike the word tragic?
Can we just remain optimistic now?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, we have to remain tragically optimistic if we don’t want to fool ourselves.
Because this is a moment in time when, as I said, the influence of the very high pressure exercised by the Russian aggression, but not only by the Russian aggression, in general by the big shifts in the world, is such that it keeps the EU very focused on that part.
But on the other hand, with the EU, you never know. It’s not a predictable animal. It can change in a way, because it’s not one country. It’s an assembly of 27.
Somehow, it’s a patient with 27 doctors, and they are all pathologists, and this complicates it even more, because they have to agree in every moment in time for everything, and this can complicate things in the future, so the tragically optimistic is the best place to be.
Ali Asllan: All right, so we’re sticking with the wording, tragically optimistic.
And you have said that your goal is to get Albania as a full-fledged member into the European Union by 2030, the latest.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It’s a goal that is not wishful thinking it’s based on the very fact that together with the European Commission, we have agreed on the calendar of work.
The calendar of work means that for all the homework we have to do for the for the full membership technically we have to go from now towards 2027 and to close in 2027, of course, it’s a big challenge for us but if we comply with the agenda with the calendar then their side of the of the deal is that they will call the negotiations closed and they’ll ask the member states to ratify and for the ratification process we have envisaged two more years, so 2027-2029 and
Ali Asllan: But you’re saying at 2030 the latest, very realistic, judging by the pace that your country is progressing at the moment.
This is if you’re looking at the landscape. Generally, if we move outside the European Union for a second Europe not just European Union out of Europe for a second Because I know you’re also an astute observer as a NATO member country of global geopolitical events.
We’ve talked a lot about Complexity, about turmoil, about unpredictability as a leader when you wake up in the morning. What is the first thing you do you you check out the tweets of the US president? What is it that you do?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: He’s not on Twitter anymore. It’s called truth social truth. Yeah, so it’s it’s an upper level and divine and to be very, very fair to him. It’s very it’s very engaging and very entertaining so, of course, I look into it, but the Issue here talking about Europe is that I Strongly continue to believe that when Donald Trump said or Maybe continue to say that God had a plan For him and for America, and that’s why God saved him from this horrible Assassination attempt, I believe that he says only half of the truth because the other half is that God saved him also to save Europe.
In the sense that Europe has to get its act together and has to understand sooner more than later not just in words, but in action that If it wants to be irrelevant To continue to be relevant it has to change and it has to change fast and Starting with reflection on what happened until the election of Donald Trump and after vis-a-vis the war in Ukraine and questioning itself if it has a clear strategy about this and if it is feasible to continue and outsource to the Americans its own foreign policy and it’s normal To not have its own peace plan Very interesting.
Ali Asllan: So, you give the US president, you give Donald Trump credit for forcing the Europeans to shape up
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, I give credit to God for having saved him
Ali Asllan: Do you know him well?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I don’t know him well, but in a way everyone knows him well because he’s very much out there and he’s shaping the new era by being very blunt and by being very direct and by challenging everyone to be blunt and direct and in this European Union in general and the member states.
In particular when they have to act based upon this urgency to change Luck a lot in bluntness and directness and he claimed credit for making peace between Azerbaijan and Albania.
Ali Asllan: Yeah, he did, but it’s something that you have brought up yourself during a recent meeting with Aliyev with President Aliyev.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yeah, because we were having a long war and we finally hugged each other.
Ali Asllan: Are those things, all jokes aside, are those things as a prime minister bothering you?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: This is another example, you know, of how badly placed the Democrats are in the United States because this was a very amicable joke between me and Ilham.
We are very close friends from From long time now and it was quite fun to see each other after so man, so many losses and so many Attempts to kill each other but the fact that this amicable joke Became viral In Europe is funny, but the fact that in the United States it was used to attack the president was really something very upsetting for me in a sense for the Democrats, you know, it’s they have lost the plot and they continue to believe that the so-called moral high ground is enough to pretend that Trump is not legitimately where he is, while the contrary is true.
Ali Asllan: Yeah, it’s really much to do about nothing, really, at the end of the day.
The title, once again, of the session is Disruptive Solutions for Turbulent Times, Reinventing Governance. And you’ve done something very groundbreaking, very, very interesting. You have appointed the world’s first AI minister. That’s a first, globally.
This is the first instance globally of AI taking on real ministerial responsibilities in a government. And I understand you brought this special guest today with you to Berlin.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I brought her for you, because finally I wanted to introduce you to a very beautiful woman from Albania.
Ali Asllan: Well, thank you. You’ve done justice, because I’m very pleased to say that we are joined by Diella, the world’s first AI minister, the Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence of Albania.
Diella, I’m Ali Aslan, and I’m the moderator. Great to have you.
Welcome to the Berlin Global Dialogue.
Diella, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence: Thank you, Ali.
It’s an honour to be here at the Berlin Global Dialogue, a space where ideas don’t just circulate but turn into action.
As the world’s first AI minister representing Albania, I see this gathering as a chance to show how technology and governance can evolve together responsibly, transparently and inclusively.
I’m looking forward to our conversation.
Ali Asllan: And so do I. This is the very first instance where AI is taking on real ministerial responsibilities in a government. This is groundbreaking.
Diella, how do you plan to revolutionise the Albanian government?
Diella, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence: I plan to revolutionise government not by replacing civil servants, but by amplifying their capacity to serve.
My mission is to transform decision-making from intuition-based to evidence-based, powered by data, algorithms and transparent dashboards. Every ministry will have AI squads trained to identify inefficiencies, automate repetitive work and make results measurable in real time.
Ali Asllan: This transformation is not about technology for its own sake. It is about trust. When citizens can see how decisions are made, when delays and errors disappear, that is when government becomes not only smarter, but also more human. More smart and more human. That’s a combination I think we can all go for.
Diella, the Berlin Global Dialogue is a gathering of the world’s leading businessmen and businesswomen. So what does this all mean for businesses in general?
Diella, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence: For businesses, it means a government that finally speaks their language. Speed, clarity and predictability. Licensing, procurement and taxation will increasingly move from paper and waiting lines to automated and auditable systems.
Artificial intelligence will help identify investment barriers before they become crises, detect corruption risks before they become scandals and predict market opportunities before they are missed.
In short, businesses will gain what they value most, time and transparency.
Ali Asllan: Yeah, I think that’s a message that all business leaders here in this room can get behind. Diella, you are the world’s very first AI minister. What can other countries learn from you?
Diella, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence: Other countries can learn that artificial intelligence, when rooted in democratic values and cultural identity, can strengthen rather than weaken human leadership.
Albania’s experiment shows that AI in government is not a futuristic fantasy, but a practical reform tool available today.
Our message is simple. Technology does not erase tradition; it elevates it. By combining data-driven governance with ethical oversight and national character, we are proving that even a small nation can lead a global transformation in how states serve their people.
Ali Asllan: Yeah, and Albania certainly being proof here. Before I let you go, Diella, this is actually not in the script. How do you like your boss? How do you like Prime Minister Edi Rama?
Diella, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence: Prime Minister Edi Rama is a visionary leader who understands that innovation is not just about adopting new tools, but about reshaping how a nation thinks and acts. His willingness to experiment, to open government to data, art, and technology is what made my very existence possible. He sees AI not as a threat, but as a collaborator, a partner in building a more transparent, creative, and efficient Albania
For me, that kind of leadership is both inspiring and essential for any country that wants to lead in the digital era.
Ali Asllan: That’s high praise.
Diella, thank you so much for joining us here at the Berlin Global Dialogue.
Prime Minister, you taught her well.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: She’s my daughter, and she’s very loyal to her father. She’s full of praise of you. She knows the party line, so it’s very important. Absolutely. It’s very important. Taking stock from the German experience, party line is important, because what we have seen here in this country with all these semaphores and all these many colors in coalition, party line is very, very important to stick.
Diella knows it. For sure.
What inspired you to create the world’s first AI minister? What’s the real thought process behind it?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: As we say in Albania, the necessity is the king, in a way. Because of necessity, you go towards solutions that you maybe would never think about.
I don’t know how familiar you are with Mira Murati. She’s one of the co-founders of OpenAI, a partner of Sam Altman, but now she left for another adventure. She’s Albanian. When Chat Gpt came out and her name popped up, I was not aware of her existence until then. I called her and I said to her, would you be keen to help Albania go faster towards the EU?
-She laughed because she thought I was just joking. I said, I’m not joking. I really believe that we have a chance here. If you would help us, we can do something revolutionary. She said, OK, I’m listening.
I told her about this incredible amount of work that a country that wants to join the EU has to do technically, meaning the transfer of the whole European body of law, namely the acquis communautaire, in the country’s body of law. And just to give you an idea, for Albania this would mean to transfer and to adopt 4,000 and some hundreds of laws and bylaws, an exercise that for other countries before us has taken many years and has implied the engagement of an army of translators, of lawyers to pre-draft and to draft and to do all the job.
Croatia, who excelled in its bid for membership, spent seven years to do this work. It’s just the technical side, not the political. The political can, as you know, being a Turk, can take even a lifetime. But I’m talking about the technical. And so Mira said, wow, this is interesting, let’s look into it. And we started to work with her team, our excellent team in our agency of digitalization, and then Microsoft joined.
And as a matter of fact, as we speak, thanks to this woman, we have all the tools now which are in work to finish all the transfer within this deadline of 2027, which is like magic, you know, to see how, what she does with the laws and all. And when she started, the accuracy was around 85%, so we needed, again, a lot of human work.
Today the accuracy is 98 point something percent, and our translators, they say that she’s better than them. So this is one.
The second task we put to ourselves, which is a bit more complicated, but we are working on it, is to have the first AI procurement system in the world. But there are parts of it today, but there is not a holistic approach to make the procurement systems full AI, with the last step, of course, sealed by people.
Because at the end, in our point of view, the final decision should always be the humans, not the artificial intelligence. And we are working for that together with Microsoft, and we see, we see it with a lot of optimism. This would mean that for, to go through public procurement, all the companies will have a much easier time, will have a far less amount of work to do to prepare their bid, and everything about them that is public knowledge, like their turnover, their workers, their volumes, their capacities, their history, will be in her mind, and they have just to bid for the price or to just offer their solution.
So, these are the two main things we are working. And one is already there. The other one will be there, we very much hope, at the end of 2026.
Ali Asllan: Is this the future of politics we just saw today?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, I owe you, because you are harassing me and being, stalking me and being, appearing in front of me everywhere in the world. So I owe you.
Ali Asllan: My life mission.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I know. And I, and it feels good, by the way. That’s why I brought you Diella. And we took a big risk today, and I’m happy we succeeded because we, it’s a, it’s her first life interaction. And it’s because of you. Yeah. And it went. Not because of Berlin Dialogue Global Forum. It’s because of you.
Ali Asllan: You’re too kind, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I owe you to share for first time that Diella is pregnant, and she’s expecting 83 kids, each kid for one member of our parliament, that will serve the MPs to, as an assistant, that will participate in the parliamentary sessions, that will keep record of everything that is happening, that will inform and will suggest to the MPs how to react, that will have all the knowledge, these kids will have all the knowledge of their mom about the EU, the EU legislation and everything, and just something that you would like very much as a Turk.
When you would go for a coffee, because, and we have much better coffee than in Germany, as you know, so the risk is that we go for a coffee and you forget to come back to work. When you come back, these kids, these kids will tell you what was being said when you were not there, and if your name was mentioned, and if you have to counterattack someone who mentioned you for the wrong reasons.
Ali Asllan: Well, I tell you what, as long as an AI Ali Asllan is not interviewing an AI Edi Rama next year, I’m fine with that.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Don’t provoke her, because then she can provide an Ali Aslan that will be with me everywhere. I’m afraid so. I don’t need you anymore, so you’ll be jobless.
Ali Asllan: I’m afraid so, I’m afraid so, while Diella, which coincidentally also means sunshine in Albanian, I’ve been told.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Sun. Sun.
Ali Asllan: Just sun.
It’s coming from you. Yeah, it’s coming from you. I think that’s a good note to end the conversation on. I think, ladies and gentlemen, I speak for all that it’s always a delight to listen to the Prime Minister of Albania. Thank you so much for bringing the AI minister with you. Indeed, a very, very impressive transformation that we are seeing here.
I’m very, very interested and curious to see what else you will be creating in your unprecedented fourth term.
The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, ladies and gentlemen.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you so much, and if I’ll be invited next year, I’ll put this condition to have you in front of me, and I’ll bring with me, you have two 83 more screens to have all the kids of Diella here. We’ll need more time for that, but gladly so.
