TIRANA, July 14 /ATA/- Prime Minister Edi Rama and the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi, the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Belinda Balluku walked along a segment of the newly-constructed Vlora bypass road that was opened to traffic few days ago.
After inspecting the new road network firsthand, PM Rama and the EU Commissioner for Enlargement held a joint press conference.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Hello everyone!
Today is a wonderful day here. It is always an exceptional pleasure to come up here and enjoy this mesmerizing scenery and landscape of Vlora and Vlora Bay, but it is also a day on which I am convinced that the Commissioner will be able to tell something more on what we are expecting, namely the formal start of Albania’s EU accession negotiations.
As we speak, the parliament in North Macedonia has gathered and most likely and hopefully will approve after an extremely politicized debate and quite unfairly so, for the sake of truth, the so-called “final French proposal.” Whereas, when it comes to our country, Albania has got nothing to do more than wait and hopefully see the green light on as soon as possible.
However, regardless of the process, we will continue working and deliver every day, as if the negotiations were opened since when they should have been opened, on reforms, the investments, the funding also provided under the EU’s investment and economic plan that was designed and moved forward by the new Commission under the special auspices of Commissioner Várhelyi, and also thanks to the common work with the Dutch government to ensure concrete proposals in the Prague Summit in October, if not wrong, on how the new European political community is translated into concrete, complementary steps that do not alter or replace the process of stepping ahead towards full integration in the European Union, but that accelerates such process in concrete aspects the involvement of Albania and other Western Balkan countries in the European Union.
Dear Commissioner, thank you once again. We are delivering on what we pledged. We welcomed you with a super sunny day right here in super wonderful Vlora Bay, and by very much hoping that you are going to enjoy such special pleasure Vlora has on offer, I will give you the floor with all my gratitude for everything you have done so far and everything you will keep doing with the very same Hungarian stubbornness that characterizes you.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi: Thank you very much!
First of all, it is really a pleasure to be back in Albania, because Albania is a country that keeps surprising me. Every time I come here there something new I discover and frankly speaking driving here was really breathtaking and impressive, as well as the work you have done here.
Basically you are building your country for the next generation. You are doing this work instead of the previous generations, since at least two previous generations have failed to deliver on what the modern life, modern economy and modern society need. There could be no economy, no society without connectivity. There could be no economy and no society without trade routes. And for that reason we, this Commission, have been very clear from the very beginning; that we want to be relevant, we want to bring our support so that we can make a leap together with the region.
On my way here, I was told that it previously took several hours just to do 20-km road in and around the city, but now that is a thing of the past, because I believe we will now see many lorries, heavy duty trucks driving along the new road, which is the best thing for a working economy. I also hope that thanks this project completely new trade routes will open up with Greece and I do we will link this road further up north, so that we will have new trade routes merging and heading to other parts of the EU.
This is part of the Corridor 8 project and I am very proud of our partners, namely the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the EU that made this project happen, because although the Commission can have the best will and the due funding, but this would be impossible without our partners that deliver on these projects. That’s why I would like to thank them. It only shows how important is to work together and how important the work they are brining here in this country as well.
We need to accelerate the work we do and we now need to speed up things, yield more results and deliver on these projects. Of course, this goes hand in hand with the reforms. Here again I would like to encourage Albania to speed up its work in that area too.
We have seen Albania coming a very long way. I remember when I first came here by beginning of 2020 with Albania facing all the tasks ahead. And now if we look back, a tremendous job has been done and Albania is ready to start the first intergovernmental conference with the EU and there is no doubt, there is no question that Albania has done everything that was necessary to have the first conference launched. For that reason, I am very hopeful that the coming days will bring us the good news and the next week might be the week we have all been waiting for.
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