To illustrate his point, Rama cited the statistics released by the EU, which show that Albania has the lowest number of burglaries in Europe. He also said that Albania has less bureaucracy than the countries of the European Union.

“It is actually, among other things, a completely different country from the perception that has prevailed for years and years when it comes to security. I will give you just one example. Based on EU statistics, we are the country with the lowest number of burglaries in Europe. The leading country is Great Britain. They say attribute this finding to the fact that the Albanians have gone there, but I doubt that,” said Rama.

“Secondly, in our a country hospitality is religion. By the way, in so many years since we ceased being the most isolated country in Europe, we were the North Korea of Europe until 1990. We were a communist country, but we did not maintain relations with other countries of Europe, as we regarded them as traitors. When we emerged from that isolation, we had a bumpy ride, experienced transition and struggled with security problems,” said Rama.

“The truth of the fact is that over the years we have faced challenges in the past that have been physically harmful to people, but never, ever, no visitor has been left harmed, not even a foreign visitor has ever had a safety issue. Perhaps very, very few cases which are proof of the rule that is enshrined in the first Albanian Constitution of the Middle Ages, that the house of the Albanian belongs to God and friend, and as long as God has not yet appeared in himself, then the friend is his closest image. For this reason, you should treat your friend as God. This is how you should treat your friend in Albania. So Albania is not only beautiful, but it is also safe,” said Rama.

“Safety is one of the elements articulated the most by tourists, when asked about Albania, especially tourists coming from Western European cities. When you ask them about Albania, they say they liked the people, the food and found our country very safe. In this regard we are okay and I must say that we still have issues with bureaucracy, yet again bureaucratic procedures are many times faster than the EU, because we are not yet in the EU, but once we get there, I am not convinced that we will be as fast as now,” Rama concluded.
/sm/