TIRANA, Nov  3 /ATA/ Prime Minister Edi Rama on Thursday from Berlin described as a great news the signing of three agreements in the framework of the Western Balkans, also drawing the attention to the visa-free movement for the citizens of Kosovo.

At a joint press conference alongside the Federal Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Rama emphasized that “what we signed today is very important, I cannot help but emphasize that we have been waiting for  these three agreements since 2-3 years now. The chancellor and his team worked very hard with our people to convince everyone to sign them.”

“Everyone from the region was very pleased to be in Berlin 8 years after the Berlin Process started, exactly in this very building. I have to say that Angela Merkel was right, because if today we have a united region at a very critical moment in history for all of Europe and the Euro-Atlantic community, the public secret is the Berlin Process. When we got together for the first time, we hadn’t seen each other for ages, and now this is what we want to do.”

“I want to thank Chancellor Scholtz from the bottom of my heart for the commitment, the excellent hospitality, for the excellent German bread and last but not least, for trusting Albania and me to host the next summit of the Berlin Process in our wonderful country,” said Rama.

I strongly hope, Rama continued, that what was discussed today and was carefully written down by the Chancellor will be set on the right track at the next summit in Tirana, starting from the energy crisis, regarding which we feel that we have not been left behind , that we are not alone, because just a few days ago the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, made a tour in the Balkans.

“She did not bring with her only beautiful words of solidarity, but also a very important financial support to start with. Of course, it is not the last,” added Rama.

PM stated that “we are seeing progress in the part of the connection, and as the Chancellor pointed out very clearly, this is not related to the connection of our infrastructure and roads in our country, but it is related to the connection of the region with Europe and Europe with the region.”

“I hope to see progress in the digital field, because these were the three main pillars of the Berlin Process from the first day it started,” said Rama.

Prime Minister Rama said that “today we are coping with the aspect of cyber security and today we want to see things get going in the right direction for our young people. We have yet again brought up the issue of how to integrate as soon as possible our universities with the European higher education system, how we can have a greater presence from Germany and other developed EU countries through their private sector and not only through public funding,” said Rama.

Prime Minister Rama also emphasized the free movement of Kosovo’s citizens.

“Of course, it sounds a little bit strange or isolationist to the people of Kosovo that while they reach an agreement on identity cards to move freely, they cannot move freely in the region like others, as far as the EU concerned. We look forward to this issue being resolved as soon as possible”, said Rama.

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