TIRANA, Sept 14 /ATA/- By Maela Marini/ Prime Minister Edi Rama, at a joint press conference on Tuesday in Tirana, with the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel, stated that “‘Open Balkan’ is more or less a mechanism designed to expedite the Berlin Process.”
Asked about the progress of the Berlin Process, Rama said that we have to look at this process from a historic perspective.
“When the Chancellor invited us to Berlin back in 2014, it was the first time in the history of this region, not in the history of several years, but in the centuries-old history of this region, that the leaders of all countries sat at a table not to kill, neither to square off, nor to talk about the past, but to talk about the future and to make her case, ” said Rama.
This process, he said, paved the way for establishing a framework for communication between Albania and Serbia to the benefit of regional development although they had never met up despite the proximity.
“Certainly the Berlin Process takes its time. The mechanisms to boost investments are moving at snail’s pace, but also the ‘Open Balkans’ as an initiative of 3 countries that aim to include all 6 countries, is the result of this process, because this process has given us the opportunity to understand that through cooperation, communication and interaction, we can build a common future. “Even the conflicts carried over for years into the atmosphere created in the Berlin Process have more solutions,” said Rama.
I believe, he continued, “that in the history of this region, Angela Merkel has set a milestone for generations and it will be the generations that will judge objectively what started in 2013 at the Chancellor’s table.”
“Of course it is legitimate for all those who live in this region to want things to gain momentum, but we must understand that we are getting over tens and why not hundreds of years of history and at the same time we are struggling with a backwardness that is very deep and comes from very far away. So not only do I not call it a failure, but I really call it a long-term vision that will be passed from one government to another, from one generation to the next, to achieve here in our region what the Chancellor has foreseen, ” said Rama.
Rama said he hoped that whoever would take over the baton would not turn his back on the region and continue to influence.
“But no matter what happens in Berlin, the region has taken a turn and the open Balkans is precisely the awareness that we will carry the things forward without waiting for others to take us by the hand, but of course by cooperating closely with Germany and “cooperating closely with the EU,” said Rama.
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