TIRANA, May 5/ATA/-The Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama stated today that, following the delivery of the first doses of Pfizer vaccines funded by the European Union in Albania, Albania will also receive all its allocated part of the vaccines by August.
In a joint press conference with the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi at Rinas airport, where the first doses of Pfizer vaccines funded by the EU arrived, the Prime Minister Rama assessed that Commissioner Varhelyi has been the voice of reason since the beginning of time in the European Commission not to exclude the Western Balkans from the vaccine distribution scheme.
The Prime Minister Rama emphasized that, “the Commissioner Varhelyi has managed to materialize his work of several months and certainly supported by the President Ursula von der Leyen, with 651 thousand doses of Pfizer vaccine distributed proportionally to the countries of the region.”
“Therefore, I want to express my gratitude to Commissioner Varhelyi and I want to thank him publicly for this extraordinary contribution during this absolutely extraordinary time,” the premier Rama said.
On the other hand, the premier Rama underlined that, “thanks to the Commissioner Varhelyi, in the first place the EC returned as an engine of solidarity not only for recovery plans but also for vaccination of European countries, including in this case the 6 countries of our region.”
In his remarks, the Prime Minister Rama also said that, the Commission has simultaneously enabled the qualification of the countries of the region, in terms of funds to face the health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic through the EC solidarity fund, where 1 million euros are allocated to Albania.
“The Commission has also approved the proposal of the first 90 million Euros of the macro-financial assistance to Western Balkans to help the social and economic recovery of the country,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
“The EU fund of 2.2 billion euros will also contribute to the delivery of vaccines to the region. While the first vaccine doses have already arrived in Albania and by August Albania will receive all its allocated part of the vaccines,” the premier Rama added. //a.i/
