TIRANA, Dec  6  /ATA/ President of the European Council, Charles Miches, arrived on Tuesday at the EU-Western Balkans Summit that is being held in Tirana.

Michel met Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is hosting the participants in this Summit, the leaders of the EU countries, of the European institutions and the Western Balkans.

In a media statement, Michel said that, “this will be a landmark meeting. It is the first time that we hold an EU – Western Balkans summit in one of the countries of the region.”

“I am fully confident that the future of our children will be safer and more prosperous with the Western Balkans in the EU and we are working today to make progress,” said Michel.

Michel emphasized that, “today we will sign an agreement on roaming charges and it is a concrete achievement consistent with what we discussed in Brdo a year ago, which means for businesses, person to person, for tourism. This is a very important step forward in the right direction.”

He underlined that “another important element is the support we want to provide to the Western Balkans in relation to the energy crunch and the energy constraints triggered by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and this shows our commitment to strengthen integration, cooperation with the region.”

Michel added, “it is an important and thrilling moment, because it is the first time that here in the region we organize this meeting between the EU and the Western Balkans. We have worked hard in recent months to make progress, to align, to have greater cooperation with the Western Balkans.”

Michel went on saying: “Progress, reforms are necessary. Everyone must fulfill their responsibilities and of course this is a concrete stage of getting closer to the region and this is important for us.”

/sm/