During the conversation with PM Rama, Timothy Garton Ash considered a great advantage the fact of being a journalist and historian at the same time because according to him, “both, in essence, are seeking the truth”.

The British historian appreciated Brexit as “the biggest political defeat in his life”.

“My whole life has focused on around Europe; I am an English European, so the separation of Britain from Europe is a tragedy for Britain, but I also think about the European Union and the future of Europe,” he added.

According to him, the mistake that Tony Blair made was to believe that it was possible to have only opening, opening, opening.

“I think all our societies need that feeling that things are under control, that emigration is being managed. The fact that we are now trying to bring it under control, like all other European countries, does not mean that it is the end of our cultural diversity, it is beyond it,” he said.

Speaking about the future of the EU, the British historian said: “If a new generation of Europeans were mobilized, not only to protect what we have achieved, which is the best Europe we have had, but also to expand it and improved what is completely possible, after 10 years, we will be able to look back and have a Union of 35 states and we will have managed to protect what we have, the free way of life in Europe. It is possible and it is up to us.”

This, according to him, “must happen without any single country being hegemonistic”.”/m.m/p.s./

Manastirliu and Timothy Garton Ash talked about his latest book “Homelands”.

Manastirliu said that, “This book is an impressive collection of the author’s own writings and experiences, as a witness to the developments in Eastern Europe in recent decades, but also to the challenges of present-day’s European integration”.

“We also talked about the possibility of opening a new way of cooperation in the field of higher education”, said Manastirliu.

Timothy Garton Ash presented his book “Homelands” in Tirana yesterday. This book has already been translated into 19 languages. He is the author of 11 books, which according to him, focus on the transformation of Europe during the last half century.

Most of Timothy Garton Ash’s work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe./p.s./