Prime Minister Rama was a special guest of the Kennedy Forum, at Harvard Institute of Politics. This renowned forum is the main arena of Harvard for political speeches, discussions and debates.

The forum hosts regularly heads of states, leaders of politics, governments, businesses, work and media.

In his speech addressed to students, Prime Minister Rama presented potentials and opportunities that Albania offers as a country that aspires to stay with dignity side by side other European countries. The Prime Minister said that Albania looks clearly at its European perspective.

Given the recent developments, following the game Serbia-Albania, Prime Minister Rama said that the path Albania will follow will always be that of peace and not of instability between countries, for the sake of common good.

“The football game showed us that we still have much to do to make the pace of change more, solid, stable and unbreakable.

Honestly – this beyond the speech – after what happened, we are facing two sides of the medal.

On one side the obvious past filled with hatred, with easygoing vocabulary full of accusations and fingers pointing the other as guilty of this unpleasant situation; and on the other hand, hopes and dreams, that this fantastic change in the Balkans has created and that has made reality before our eyes an horizon of possibilities.

So, the first way is the easiest way of going back and responding with the same tone, with the same old language of politics. But, is it worth fighting for and through this road? Or is it better to fight in order to overcome also this very sad and disappointing moment and to look forward for the sake of the next generations and for the sake of the chance given to us by this historic opportunity to look all together towards the future, which we have the fantastic opportunity to see as a concrete horizon in the horizon of the European Union? I believe it should be and this will be our way, the Albanian way. Albanians have never been destabilizers in the Balkans nor aggressors against anyone, and if Albanians are today in a better position from that of 20, 10 years ago, this means something. I strongly believe that the meaning of this is that we have obtained what we have built through peaceful means and by not being harmful to anyone, looking for a better place in the region” – the Prime Minister said.

During the conversation with the Prime Minister, students showed their interest regarding the continuity of relations between Serbia and Albania. The Prime Minister replied that the right path is that of collaboration in order to create a new image of the Balkans that deserves to be part of Europe.

One of the Harvard students asked the Prime Minister: “After what happened in Serbia-Albania game, I read in the news that you have stated that you will visit Belgrade at the end of October. I believe this shows that Albania will move forward, but do you consider your visit as a negative implication in the relations between Albania and Serbia, since Serbia might consider your visit to Serbia as an attitude of submission considering that during these days there has been a lot of anti-Albania propaganda full of hatred?

Prime Minister Rama answered saying that fighting against a flag means not being able to leave behind the ghosts of your past. According to the Albanian Prime Minister “this is their problem, not ours”, referring to reactions following the match.

“I have to admit that Serbs showed that they have a far bigger fantasy than us and a much more catastrophic imagination than we are able to have, because they are still in big trouble with their past. When I heard about all these people – who somehow managed to fool the world only for a moment, I hope – that whatever happened was just because of a flag. When I saw all those people fighting with the flag of another country, sincerely I felt sorry for them, I felt sorry.

Because, I believe that fighting with the flag of others means in a way not being able to leave behind your ghost, your past, is like fighting with yourself. So, it is their problem, not our problem.

Our problem is to ensure that we should not miss this fantastic opportunity that we have, and we can show the world, we can show Europe that the Balkans are able to move forward and that the Balkans do not deserve to be isolated as they have been isolated.

And, if we get all trapped in a football game, what we do is hurt ourselves more, isolate again the Balkans and make people say: OK, they are all the same. They are the same as they have been all these years, so they do not deserve our attention, they do not deserve our support, they do not deserve our cooperation. We should not forget what happened in Berlin. What happened in Berlin is historic. It is up to us to tell if we are ready to move forward and if we are ready to be partners with Europe, as we aspire. So, if it is EU, we must be E. We cannot erase the E and be B, because then we will remain B class, for how many years, I do not know. So let’s honour the E.”

The meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama was attended with great interest by hundreds of young people, professors and academics who asked him about various issues related to the economy, as well as political developments in Albania.