Ambassador Hill said that the Open Balkans is designed for the six Western Balkan countries to join the initiative, open their borders to the trade of goods and tourist movement.

However, only Kosovo opposes the regional initiative.

“We need for those borders not to divide, but rather unite countries in the region. There have been a number of attempts on regional integration and I am a big supporter of Open Balkans initiative, which seeks to invite all the six Western Balkan countries to join despite their status and work together to open borders and make sure that borders ease trade of goods, services and the movement of tourists,” Ambassador Hill said in remarks at a joint event with Serbia’s Minister of Trade Tomisllav Momirovic.

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PM Rama, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and North Macedonia’s PM Dimitar Kovacevski held a meeting, followed by a joint press conference:

“The three of us are here today as we succeeded to participate in one of Europe’s biggest wine production events in Europe in Verona, Italy. For the first time ever, our wine producers are showcasing their varieties in these international exhibitions, after an initial similar event we jointly launched in Belgrade last year, which will be repeated and it will certainly be a much bigger and will attract broader attention this year,” Rama said in his remarks.

“The exhibition will represent a golden opportunity to talk about our agriculture, wine production, our challenges and ambitions, and it will also represent an incredible opportunity for our producers to establish contacts with the best wine producers and traders in Europe and in a wider region,” he said.

The government head added that the exhibition was also an opportunity for the three Open Balkan leaders to share views ahead of the upcoming meetings.

“We will be meeting by end of May and a bread exhibition is set to take place in Albania in early autumn that will be followed by another wines fair,” he added.

Some 20 wine producers, representing different regions across the country, will showcase 75 best wine labels and most popular wine varieties of Albania at Vinitaly 2023, the largest wine and spirits exhibition in the world held every year in Verona, Italy.

The exhibition brings together best wine producers, winegrowers, cellar masters, oenologists, sommeliers and wine suppliers, as well as wine exhibitors from some of the most famous wineries in the world and aims to promote the region as a tourist destination.

According to the official data, Albania has a vineyard area of around 11,000 hectares and wine production increased by around 11.2 percent in the recent years. The final product is sold both in the domestic and international markets. The annual trade volume in the winemaking industry is estimated at Euro 15 million. Some 100 vineries across Albania produce over two million litres of wine.

The reported production of grapes in Albania appears to exceed that of Serbia and Montenegro. Meanwhile, the leading region for vineyard grape production is Fier followed by Berat, Elbasan, and Vlora.

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* * *

Hello!

I am very happy to see Ambassador Chris Hill in front of us here, who, as every other successful American diplomat serving in this region, speaks also our language and therefore be careful when you speak in their presence, as they understand not only our English, but they can understand us when we speak our language too.

I am also very happy to see today two very important friends, who represent equally significant countries to our region, namely the Turkish foreign minister, our friend and my dear friend Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, whom I would like to thank for attending. Turkey is an irreplaceable strategic partner of Albania, but also an ally in all the positive processes in our region, as well as the Foreign Minister of Hungary, our friend Peter Szijjarto, whom I would like to thank too.

In the meantime, at the previous summit we publicly announced that we had invited the foreign ministers of Greece and Italy to attend today’s summit, but they were unable to attend. However, they will certainly be invited to the next summit in Tirana.

While talking about the Open Balkan initiative, the prime minister of a European Union member state asked “why aren’t we invited to attend?” I told him I would discuss that with my colleagues and that it would likely be invited, as well as that I was very glad there was interest in the Open Balkan initiative and we are starting to see the early signals that the day will come when more and more countries from the spaces – where we are waiting for so many years to be invited – will be actually  invited to join the Open Balkan initiative, and in my view this confirms the fact that the Balkans is just as important for Europe as Europe is for the Balkans and I am confident this will become increasingly clear to all our friends.

I would like to proudly state here today that the Kosovo-Serbia deal on crossing borders of both countries using only ID cards is a solution provided by the Open Balkan initiative. I told a Serb reporter yesterday that it wouldn’t be necessary to spend so much energy if Kosovo and other countries in the region were to join the Open Balkan initiative. Therefore, I would like to publicly express my respect for the President of Serbia that by materializing this solution has actually sent a very clear signal to everyone that peace is the first solution, finding a solution for people is the first choice. Of course, this won’t solve all what has yet to be resolved, it doesn’t solve the issue dividing us, yet this is the right path.

We are here not to simply celebrate wines, the region’s traditional food, and bring people closer step by step, but we are here at the second Open Balkan summit to take place in the context of the war in Ukraine and we are here to launch several steps under such a context. Before counting all these steps, I would like to point out a fact that has taken place in the period between the two summits; many countries feared they wouldn’t be able to secure wheat and corn and food supplies due to the Ukraine conflict. Albania was part of this very disturbing situation as Albanian wheat importers had already signed contracts with Serbian producers in a context when Serbia, just like every other country did, blocked all its exports,

However, it was the Open Balkan initiative and this increasingly solid relation between us within the Open Balkan initiative that unblocked the contracts immediately for importers from Albania and North Macedonia. And we are talking neither about symbolic things, nor about politics, but about food and bread, the basic staple for the people.

Would it have been possible for us to take another step towards energy security? We established an ad hoc team for this issue as the power supply is now a pressing global issue and our state budgets are haemorrhaging as we strive to secure electricity. We will join forces so that Albania is made available what Serbia and North Macedonia can offer and vice-versa. We know that Serbia and North Macedonia are dependent on thermo-power, whereas Albania is dependent on hydropower. Who would have ever imagined that in order to help ourselves by helping each other we can sign agreements to exploit thermo potentials and secure more electricity.

We have agreed to create synergies to attract some of the biggest investment projects in the region but taking advantage and making use of Serbia’s excellent experience in attracting foreign investments.

I would like to conclude by saying that figures speak for themselves. It would suffice considering what has happened in terms of the trade exchanges volume between the three countries in the last seven months. It would suffice considering significant growth of Albania’s agricultural and fertilizers exports to both Serbia and North Macedonia. It would suffice considering growth in influxes for us to figure out how much time we have wasted and the tremendous potential still there to be exploited if we were to consider the data, which are still ridiculous compared to how high such figures should be. Yet they are very encouraging compared to the modest data on trade exchanges between our countries in the past.

The Open Balkan initiative no longer needs to seek justification for its existence, nor do we need to explain anymore, it now speaks for itself and those who have a vision for the future and want to see and hear us, will understand that.

We are now increasingly committed to making most of this initiative, where we invite everyone to join in. I avail myself of this occasion to announce that we will seriously consider sending invitations to other partners and EU countries and no one should be jealous of us. Nobody should doubt about it, why we have invited everyone, why we are invited Greeks, Hungarians, or why Italians will join us too. What matters most is that the foreign affairs ministers of Turkey and the EU country – Hungary, are attending the summit in Belgrade today, as well as the US ambassador in Belgrade, Christopher Hill, is also here.

Many thanks to everyone! Thank you to the EU representative here in Belgrade for attending and many thanks for this hospitality and the excellent summit. It is true that the three of us have hosted and presided over it together, but the hosts and organizers of everything we have accomplished are the masters of the house here and we are very pleased that together we have managed to concretely show a meaningful overview of the Open Balkans.

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Addressing the Open Balkan summit in Belgrade, the government head also commented on the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia for travellers to show no additional documents for border crossings, but only IDs.

“Last day clearly showed what is the road and the solution provided by the Open Balkan initiative. The solution to allow travellers cross the border using only IDs is a solution by the Open Balkans. I told a Serb reporter yesterday that it wouldn’t be necessary to spend so much energy if Kosovo and other countries in the region were to join the Open Balkan initiative,” he said.

“Therefore, I would like to publicly express my respect for the President of Serbia that by materializing this solution has actually sent a very clear signal to everyone that peace is the first solution, finding solution for people is the first choice,” PM Rama said.

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In the course of his visit to Austria, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was invited along with the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer to attend the Wachau European Forum  with motto of this year’s event being “Safeguarding Europe’s future and EU Enlargement.”

“For anyone who has read Samual Becket’s Waiting for Godot, I think it is easy to figure out how real life imitates the theatre and North Macedonia and Albania are the imitation of both Becket’s characters, Vladimir and Estragon in the play Waiting for Godot.  Vladimir asks Estragon: Shall we move? And Estragon replies: Yes, let’s move. But it is then Samuel Beckett, the playwright, or the EU in this case, that says: Nobody will move,” he said.

However – he went on saying – “our choice is not so complicated, as instead of waiting for Godot without moving, we can move ourselves by reviving Europe’s spirit right in our region, so that peace is no longer reversible into a very horrible thing, and we are very good at making horrible things rather than at things that can be solved easily, so that four freedoms of the EU, namely the movement of people, goods, capital and services become a way how we live with one another,” PM Rama said.

“We want to implement the Berlin Process and we have developed the right tool that we call Open Balkans. Open Balkans is precisely this tool to implement the Berlin Process and it is exactly what we will be doing,” he stated.

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PM Edi Rama: Thank you for the warm hospitality and for the positive atmosphere created here. Thank you for taking the trouble to join us here.

The Open Balkan initiative started off as a joint idea of three people, but today it is no longer the idea of only three people. The Open Balkans now belongs to all our citizens and will always belong to more and more people, because it takes just driving to Ohrid and cross the border to see the change, where  a simple sign reading “the Open Balkans green lane” actually means a great relief for all of those who transport their products, it represents a great relief after the walls have been torn down and roads have been cleared for everyone to travel and move faster without being tormented and wasting precious time to transport goods and their products from point A to point B.

As the President affirmed, we will set up a joint working group to tackle the crisis and provide concrete and tangible solutions to the profound crisis, which will most likely further deepen and which has gripped not only our continent, but the whole world, and it definitely calls for sustainability and efforts of  every country, but we can do whatever in our power to relieve the burden each of our country has to share thanks to the cooperation between our countries is indeed a very precious thing at his moment, when even the last grain of wheat will weigh as much as a 100-kg sack of full of wheat and when the last kilowatt of electricity will weigh as much as a megawatt.

Our joint working group will start its work immediately and in the meantime we will address other issues through other chapters of the Open Balkans, starting with the first one in July, when we will have a meeting to discuss the proposals of the working group and then in September, in Belgrade, where the first edition of the Open Balkans wine and food fair is set to take place and bring together entrepreneurs and citizens from all the countries in the region, because politicians may decide to stay here or not to come here, but what we wish for is making sure that all the citizens and the entrepreneurs are granted the opportunity to participate and get involved.

Of course, in addition to the first edition of the Open Balkans Fair, a joint session on food security will take place concurrently. The next summit of the Open Balkans initiative will focus on energy security and will take place in Albania. It is an already known fact that today Albania is obviously a very important regional hub in terms of the energy supply and, on the other hand, there are ample potentials for us to become complementary due to various energy sources. The next sessions will focus on connectivity, transport. Here, also for tourism and the environment with Montenegro, so that we develop as many synergies.

Last but not least, I am very glad that we are five of us today, regardless of the reluctance and previous views or statuses and, as Dritan rightly earlier said, this is the table for us to communicate and establish dialogue and make the best of it in best of the common interest.

I wish we were six of us and I wish we will be six of us, but one thing is for sure. Precisely because this is an initiative that belongs to the citizens, the countries and future of the region, the Open Balkans initiative will neither be stopped, nor shut down. Whoever opposes is destined for disappointment and whoever is reluctant is merely destined for wasting more precious time from benefiting from his initiative.

We are here and we will continue to be here in the future, because none of our countries will go anywhere. We didn’t chose each other, we have seen our history dozens and hundreds of years ago when we turned the back and opposed each other and fought against each other, but our children deserve having a space, where the wealth, the richness, abundant resources, the stunning landscape and the diversity God has blessed this region with become the basis for their welfare, peace and security.

Thank you!

– Mr. Rama, how much does the statement by the Russian Foreign Minister that he supports the Open Balkan compromises this initiative and does the initiative really favours Serbia, as he said, or all the participating countries? Have there been any reactions from the European Union and the United States of America that joined this format today? Thank you!

PM  Edi Rama: Thank you very much! At the very beginning, I expressed my appreciation to many people and I would like to start my answer to your question by expressing a last but not least appreciation. I would like to thank Mr. Ali Ahmeti for his presence here  and I would like to point out that Ali Ahmeti is one of the pioneers of the Open Balkans initiative even when we had yet to arrive at this point we are today, let alone be part of the Open Balkans and this suffices for us to take a look at North Macedonia’s institutional system nowadays and what institutional system used to exist in North Macedonia, when Ali Ahmeti was lambasted for allegedly “sitting at a table with the enemies.” The very enemies who lived and shared the same street, the enemies with whom you share the sky and the land of this state made up of two state-forming ethnic communities, namely the Macedonians and the Albanians.

It was a time when we couldn’t even imagined that the Albanian was to become an official language let alone imagining that the Speaker of North Macedonia’s Parliament was to be an Albanian, two deputy prime minister were to be Albanians, and I don’t know how many ministers were to be Albanians and so on and so forth. Why am I saying all these? I am saying all of these because there is a way for anyone wishing to learn what the Open Balkans initiative is and where we wish to reach and they can do so by looking at the path Ali Mehmeti has walked through.

On the other hand, I would like to say something to all those who keep asking questions about accession or departure from the Open Balkans. Fortunately, the Open Balkans is neither the United Nations Organization nor the European Union. There is no membership in the Open Balkans initiative, but one can access and integrate into this initiative as they please.

Fortunately, it is not in our hands to change the EU, but it is up to us how to do the work in the Balkans after having seen how the single common market has worked and about which everyone says it is the right thing to do. It is definitely the right thing to do and yes we have launched the Open Balkans initiative to implement the common market principles.

When it comes to the Russian Foreign Minister, I can say that it is about a very high-level shark in the very ocean of the international diplomacy, who is well-known for his sarcasm and many fish have swam and trapped along the stream of his tricks, because if he was to support the Open Balkans initiative he would then be here today. How can he possibly support the Open Balkans? The U.S. and the EU are present here today, whereas he is not. This sort of narrative and this sort of food can fool the “closed Balkans fish only.”

The last thing I have to say before the man who exactly knows if Russia is the mastermind of this, I mean this fishing in this water of Balkan relations history to hurt processes that are breaking us up from the past and sending us towards the future, it’s very easy but it’s not going to work.

I would conclude by citing the US Ambassador in Belgrade who told us last night that the United States has detonated two atomic bombs over Japan, yet the US and Japan are very close allies for a long time now. If Japan would have opted to turn its back on the US, it wouldn’t become the country it is today. The past features many issues that may hinder us, there are many things we should tackle, but the more we work together for the future, the higher are the chances for us to address the pending issues of the past.

If we fail to realize this and if we fail to realize that we come from various histories and we debate over where I and you come from at every meeting we hold, we will never come together. What matters most for me is the fact that the exports of the Albanian farmers to Serbia and North Macedonia have doubled thanks to the Open Balkans initiative. This is what matters most.

Thank you!

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Choosing between turning our back on the future and turning our eyes toward the future, we have opted for the latter.

At the start of the Open Balkans summit in Ohrid, the participating leaders delivered their remarks about the vision of their respective governments regarding the future of this initiative, with mutual benefit between countries. In his remarks, Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that Albania is determined to look towards a common perspective, understanding and appreciating the importance of cooperation and good neighbourliness.

* * *

I would like to remind you all here that we are meeting for the first time at an Open Balkans summit since the start of the war in Ukraine and I wish to share with all of you that other than what many wrongly think, the Ukraine war actually makes Open Balkans a greater necessity as compared to what this initiative was about prior to the start of this war.

Last night, I was honoured, privileged and pleased to meet here, ahead of the Open Balkans summit, Ambassador Chris Hill, one of the US diplomacy veterans and undoubtedly a profound connoisseur of the region, who has served also as Ambassador in Tirana during the era of the very dramatic transformation and transition from dictatorship to democracy and he is serving as Ambassador in Belgrade now. I believe that with his presence here, Ambassador Chris Hill is one of the most credible witnesses to the indispensability of the Open Balkans. He is here to support Open Balkans and for us, and for me personally at least, is very encouraging.

However, apart from all our friends and partners, who are extremely important to us, the Open Balkans is about our own people, Open Balkans is important for our people. Open Balkans is important for our shared space, where our children are born and where our children will take the destiny of our countries in the future.

We very well know that it didn’t take the Ukrainian war to start so that we could learn about the special relations Serbia has with Russia. We didn’t wait for the war in Ukraine to start and find out that there is such a history between Serbia and Russia. We didn’t wait for the Ukrainian war to begin so that we could be informed that there is still an unresolved conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. We are all aware of these facts, but choosing between turning our back on the future and turning our eyes to the future, we have chosen the latter.

And today we are here exactly for this, because we wish to move forward to the future without turning a blind eye to the still unresolved issues, however being convinced that those issues could be resolved only if we get closer to one another, only if one day we really understand how important we are to each other.

In order for me not to go on with the rhetoric, allow me to point out some facts: the contracts on wheat supplies between Albanian wheat importers from Serbia once the war in Ukraine started and they have been exchanging under such contracts over years now and not thanks to the Open Balkans initiative indeed, but such exchanges were not cut off and were not blocked as it would have been the case if it was not for the Open Balkans initiative, because within the Open Balkans is a partner that has taken such a commitment to provide reciprocal response towards what we are seeking to build as a solidarity for the future? Do you think this is too little? Do you think it would take some imagination and incredible fantasy to think what would have happened if we were to be denied all that amount of wheat supplies under the signed contracts? Where would we be supposed to find all this quantity of wheat and crops we need to feed our people? Would we be finding it through the rhetoric of conflict? Or by issuing calls and starting a war?

I can go on with pointing out the energy issue; today we are all on a knife-edge, with nobody knowing what is going to happen next. And this is the case not with our region only, but the whole Europe and whole world, but our region is somehow more vulnerable than many others. Meanwhile, the winter will soon come when the issue is not going to be the energy price, which will keep surging, but the problem is that there will be no energy available for us to purchase. We can’t afford to turn our backs on each other and start opening the chapters of conflicts to settle the accounts and engage in rhetoric, while people wish to receive power supplies. I don’t believe and we will see for ourselves that this would be clearly demonstrated again, just like it was the case with the wheat supplies, and it will clearly show that the Open Balkans is neither mine, nor  Aleksandar Vučić’s, nor Zoran Zaev’s yesterday and Dimitar Kovacevski’s today, nor Dritan Abazovic’s or somebody’s else. Open Balkans belongs and is for the people, Open Balkans is for the Albanian farmers, Open Balkans is for the Albanian families.

Do you know what is the percentage of growth of exports between Albania and Serbia ? The exporting Albanian farmers are the trailblazers of the Open Balkans initiative and this is for a good reason. This is not because they discovered where the Serbian market is located only when we launched the Open Balkans initiative, since they were exporting their products to Serbia for so many years. Albanian agricultural exports to Serbia rose 63%. What does this mean? This means that it is a market where our farmers are selling their products and they are reaping benefits and this is the best answer to those who claim that Open Balkans is to the benefit of Serbia only and it is Serbia the one to benefit most. Of course, Serbia didn’t join the Open Balkans initiative to lose, but we are all here to earn what everyone can earn through hard work, cooperation and freedom of movement.

The forest fires; we have built a mechanism today and I am convinced that this summer people will have the opportunity to see the benefits from this mechanism to help each other through the logistics, through aerial fire-fighting means. Shall we leave the forests to be burned to the ground, or shall we decide to be assisted by Serbians? I strongly believe and I repeat that the more we get closer to each other, the greater the chances to resolve the conflicts and build permanent peace between Serbia and Kosovo. A topic I disagree with the Serbian President about, however the solution is rather simple here, to either turn this disagreement into a permanent conflict with all the gaps that would then remain in our economy, in our security and so on and so forth, or shall we do the contrary. We need to get closer as much as possible and understand each other in the best possible way so that ultimately people themselves become aware that the future is much more important than the past.

And two more words about the EU and this supposed next “wedding”. I call it a wedding ahead of any of the European Council meetings, because I prepare as if going to attend a wedding party. I have already stated it previously; Albania is not going to prepare for this wedding party anymore. If this wedding is going to happen we will go dressed up occasionally. I mean we won’t dress up especially for such an occasion.

The Open Balkan is “a man” and the United Europe is the bride. This is really bad for us since it would have been much better for us to be “the bride” as we would have been taken much sooner. And by being “the man”, this is really a serious problem, but we are clear about our path; we will build Europe right here.

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The senior Socialist official Balla praised EP Rapporteur Isabel Santos for her “objective presentation of the findings on the European Commission report and the encouraging resolution on immediate launch of the first intergovernmental conference between the European Union and Albania.”

The meeting also discussed progress and outcome of the justice system reform as one of the most profound and most important reforms ever launched by Albania.

“We wouldn’t be able to deliver on the judiciary reform without the precious support and assistance from our partners, namely the European Union and the United States of America,” Balla said.

Santos and the Austrian MEP Schieder affirmed full support for the regional integration and welcomed the results of the Open Balkans initiative to date.

Balla underlined that Albania plays an important role as the only Western Balkan country with its foreign policy fully aligned with that of the European Union.

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The government head said that the initiative promotes peace, cooperation, integration and it accelerates the Berlin Process.

“Those who are against Open Balkans can choose not to see, hear or understand the fact that this initiative promotes peace, cooperation, integration and speeds up the Berlin Process! The Open Balkans will not be stopped, because the future will not be stopped,” PM Rama said,

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Speaking at a meeting with retired people on the government’s Social Resilience Package, the government head that negotiations are already underway with Serbia to release supplies of wheat previously contracted by the Albanian importers.

He underlined that the release of around 20, 000 metric tonnes of wheat from Serbia will be made possible through the Open Balkans initiative.

“Albanian companies have contracted 20,000 tonnes of wheat from Serbia, but borders are now closed. And they are closed not to Albania only, but to everyone. However, we want to open borders through diplomacy, namely the Open Balkans initiative and this is why the initiative is worth of,” PM Rama said in his remarks.

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