Rama shared photos from the meeting and noted that the discussion focused on bilateral relations and Albania’s European integration path.

PM Rama also announced that, starting next March, Luxair, the flag carrier of Luxembourg, is launching direct flights to Albania.

PM Edi Rama is in Luxembourg to attend the 10th Albania–European Union Intergovernmental Conference, which is expected to formalize the conclusion of negotiations on Chapter 20 (Enterprise and Industrial Policy). /m.m/r.e/p.s./

Hoxha welcomed the arrival of another European airline in Albania, describing the new route as “excellent news.”

“Starting on March 29, 2027, this new year-round route will operate twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, creating the first regular direct air connection between Luxembourg and Albania,” Hoxha said in a post on social media platform X.

The new service will bring people, businesses and communities in the two countries closer together, Hoxha said.

The announcement follows Hoxha’s April 21 visit to Luxair’s headquarters, where he discussed the possibility of establishing a direct Luxembourg-Tirana route with the airline’s CEO, Gilles Feith.

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The squad held its final training session on Friday, with the coaching staff focusing on fitness work and tactical preparations ahead of the match.

Forward Myrto Uzuni has rejoined the team after recovering from injury and is available for selection, while Anis Mehmeti will miss the game due to illness.

The remainder of the squad is fully fit, with a positive atmosphere reported in the camp ahead of the fixture.

Albania enters the match following a 1-0 defeat to Israel in a friendly earlier this month. The game against Luxembourg is expected to provide another opportunity for the squad of upcoming competitive fixtures.

Tickets are available online and at the ticket office near Air Albania Stadium.

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The Communications Department of the Albanian Football Association has officially confirmed a friendly match against the Luxembourg National Team.

The match is scheduled for June 6 at 20:00 at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana.

Another friendly is expected soon, giving fans another chance to see the team in action.

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Hoxha held a meeting with Luxair CEO Gilles Feith and his team to discuss potential air links between Albania and Luxembourg.

In a productive meeting with Luxair CEO Gilles Feith, we explored establishing direct flights connecting Albania and Luxembourg, stated Hoxha.

“We are moving beyond rhetoric to make economic diplomacy the driving force of our foreign policy”, Hoxha wrote in a post on social networks, adding that this is not a slogan.

Hoxha underlined that Albania’s tourism boom and expanding aviation sector create significant potential for new routes and closer trade cooperation.

“Air connectivity is Albania’s engine for growth. By fostering trade, boosting tourism, and accelerating EU integration, enhanced flight networks do more than move people—they drive our national development strategy,” stressed Minister Hoxha.

Hoxha welcomed Luxair to the Albanian market and said he looks forward to further cooperation. /gj.m/j.p/p.s./

During their meeting in Luxembourg, Balla highlighted the crucial role of the diaspora in promoting national identity and fostering cultural and social partnerships.

He stressed that these activities foster Albanian identity and bridge the gap with the home country.

Balla praised Bashari for her dedication, noting that art and culture are unparalleled diplomatic tools that bridge communities through a shared language of harmony and respect. /m.m/j.p/p.s./

Prime Minister Edi Rama heads the Albanian delegation in these negotiations composed of ministers, deputy ministers and heads of work for the relevant clusters.

At the start of the conference, PM Rama will deliver the opening speech on behalf of Albania, while on behalf of the EU; the statement will be delivered by Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, which holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU.

At the end of the conference, PM Rama, Minister Sikorski and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos will hold a joint press conference.

Cluster II of the negotiations contains topics like Free Movement of Goods, Free Movement of Workers, Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services, Free Movement of Capital, Legislation on Commercial Companies, Intellectual Property Law, Competition Policy, Financial Services and Consumer and Health Protection. /j.p/p.s./

The government head also renewed Albania’s commitment to minority rights and property protection as the country opened its first chapters in the long-awaited EU membership process at the second intergovernmental conference with the EU in Luxembourg today.

“We will do it by protecting human rights in an inclusive society that honors diversity and protects the minority rights in accordance with the European and international human rights standards,” PM Rama stated.

The Premier underlined that Albania has already enforced a legal framework in line with the Council of Europe standards, setting also an example for other countries, including certain EU member states too.

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During his stay, the government head met and engaged in a conversation with members of the Albanian community in Luxembourg, fellow countrymen who are best integrated into the administration, banks, and large companies in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg over the years, to discuss their possible contribution to the priority areas of Albania’s development.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: I would like to sincerely appreciate you for taking the trouble to come here and I don’t want to deliver a speech, because I think it would be more appropriate to engage in a conversation together. I am particularly interested in listening and learning as much as I can during such conversations, more so I cannot pretend to best know the context you live in and the problems you encounter or even your desires for the future or with the interaction with Albania. You certainly represent a top-notch part of the Albanian community abroad and, undoubtedly, considering this country’s spheres of economic activity, you are definitely an asset for this country and you are definitely asset for Albania itself.

At this meeting, I am accompanied the Ambassador, who needs no introduction, with the Deputy Minister of Finance, with the Director of the Innovation Agency, who was like one of you until recently and, after a long stay in the United States, he decided to return back to Albania and take over this newly-founded agency in a bid to provide greater impetus to innovation in our governance system. So, if you would ask me questions, you would help me to talk about things you are interested in and not talk about things that may be far from the scope of your interests.

As to the diaspora vote in the Albanian elections, this is not a matter of wish or readiness on our part, because we want Albanian diaspora to vote, but this is a matter of the database. We still lack a register of the migration. Despite several attempts, we have not succeeded because, as it is usually the case with Albanians when it comes to obtaining our passport or identity card, we want it on that day, at the moment we need it, but this database issue hinders us a lot to deliver on the migrants vote.

We have developed a complete plan on renewable energy and we are significantly investing through projects forwarded by various companies. It would definitely be of great interest for us to make available more financial instruments other than the classical ones, and the European Investment Bank, the EBRD are involved in renewable energy projects. However, in order for everything to be more concrete, we don’t mind it at all making entire list of projects available, plus a list of applications already underway and which may need some financial support, and figure then out how this could be achieved. It is actually our national goal to turn Albania into a net energy exporter by 2029 and make sure that the country no longer needs to import electricity. Based on this plan, solar power projects are already underway, whereas a number of wind power energy projects have also been submitted and we are confident to deliver on this objective.

You represent an important community here. It would be wise for us to make efforts and  you can help us establish contacts with local business and investors in various areas of economy.

What we can imagine for Albania is that it becomes a country that thanks to its potential tourism, energy and innovation develops the right conditions to create quality living conditions and standards and I am confident that Albania will definitely lead the region for its economy, safety, security, quality living standards and opportunities. I am really confident about this. I would like to sincerely thank you all. It was a pleasure. Not everyone had the opportunity to take the floor, but we will be at your disposal.

Thank you very much!

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The Forum also served as a platform to share ideas on investment into green and digital technologies to foster innovation and productivity gains.

Prime Minister Edi Rama was a keynote speaker at the panel entitled Road to Enlargement, a session that, based on the latest European Union’s new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans and the war in Ukraine, looked into the role finance institutions can play jointly in accompanying accession countries on their path to EU integration, also building on the experience in the Western Balkans.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much! You asked for a panel to be remembered, but for it to be remembered I would have to attack the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). However, I am not going to do so.

So I would simply share my state of mind with the audience. Actually I am in a post-traumatic period, since I had to go through a long trauma with the European Union. While we were insisting to open the accession talk, they were insisting in telling us that they wanted us for sure, yet they were not ready to talk.

So, imagine one wanting to be married, while the other side says:”I very much love to marry you, but I don’t want to talk to you.

It is quite a traumatic experience, but it is over now, as we have already opened the accession talks and in this post-traumatic era I am much keener to praise the EU than to blame the EU.

The praise is totally a deserved one, because we are seeing the incredibly beneficial service that the EU is providing us through the accession talks, as an incredibly large knowhow space. And I think this makes the difference and this is what makes the difference also for Moldova and Ukraine vis-à-vis other countries that lack such a perspective, because where else could they find this knowhow? Who would possibly tell them how to build the institutions, how to build the state’s accountability vis-à-vis the citizens? Who would accompany them in this? Nobody would!

So we are blessed to have the EU to have the EU on our side and to have the EU as part of our future. But it is not only this. At this moment in time, the EU has made an incredible extra mile, completely against the odds and, I would say, completely against its own tradition and, for the first time, the EU has been able to think out of the box about the Western Balkans and I am talking about this new Growth Plan, which is an extra mile, because it opens up paths that were previously opened to the member states only. It was a bit “nothing or all.” So if you wanted this marriage, you had to endure the long waiting time, but in the meantime you had almost nothing, but very small and few things.

I remember when I showed Ursula and others the facts, the data, the EU per capita contribution to its own members in our region, which is estimated at over 4300 euros a year, whereas the EU per capita contribution to our region is just 138 euros. So, you can imagine the trends and forecasts when it comes to the convergence. After the pandemic in particular, this became even more dramatic, because the EU member states could use extra funding and incredible support programmes, while we were totally excluded from that.

So the new Growth Plan is an incredible opening up for a different way to look at the future, both from the EU and our perspective.

Last but not least, I think that within the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB) there is something very important, which we need to make use of, and which is not the money, but it is the knowhow.

I very much hope that we will receive a lot more in terms of knowhow on scaling up funding of innovation, for catalytic instruments and so on and so forth, because this is what we lack a lot of capacities. And, surely if technology wouldn’t have come into our lives, our future would have been absolutely awkward, while all these data would mean nothing at all compared not only with us, but also with the rest of Europe. But technology is a blessing for us. It could probably be a curse for Germany, because they have created an incredible machine of paper work and therefore they find it more difficult to move to digital, being also Germans. But for us, the lack of big machines of bureaucracy to turn to something else is just a clean slate, so that we can start and take incredible steps through technology. That’s why I think much more open doors, both to the EBRD, to the EIB, as well as to the EU are needed for us to deliver on transformation through technology, through the digital and the artificial intelligence.

We certainly should deliver and do our job; we have to do our best, because as our beloved “future bride” has told us: It depends on us. So nothing comes for granted, unless you are under attack from a superpower and as such you fuel some compassion and they get you in without having to meet the benchmarks. But, if you are not under an attack, you have to tick all the boxes. Therefore, I hope we will continue to be patient, continue to be good willing. Frankly, I am not looking for faster and not merit-based EU integration, because it would have been like asking for a driving license without really knowing how to drive and this wouldn’t be beneficial to the country. So, I am looking for a full trip marred with plenty of neurotic situations, as it of course goes without saying, when you have to deal with the melancholic Brussels, but at the end you should tick all the boxes and be ready, because this is for us. It is for our children. It is neither for Brussels, nor for Paris or Berlin, but it is for us. The EU is the driving force to build a democratic state and this is something that would have never happened in a region like ours, where the only state we saw was the Ottoman Empire and we were the outermost part. Then we saw some versions of the state that were from bad to worse, from the Fascists to the Nazis and to the Communists, but no institutions that would really make the difference.

So I think we have to be grateful for being blessed to deal with the EU and every time we become angry with the EU, because it is impossible not to be angry, we should not forget that this is what we have and nothing else would replace it. So, it is a marriage. It is not perfect, but it is what we have!

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