TIRANA, Oct  7 /ATA/ Prime Minister Edi Rama shared Friday on social media another photo from yesterday’s meeting in Prague of the European Political Community, where the economy, security and energy situation were at issue.

“There is no objection, it is approved,” Rama writes in the caption below the photo of President of France, Emmanuel Macron, giving a thumbs-up.

This photo which took centre stage was published by the prestigious “Associated Press” to show the entire meeting held yesterday in Prague. “France’s President  Emmanuel Macron, center, gestures to Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, second right, at a group photo during the European Political Community at Prague Castle, Czech Republic, Thursday, October 6, 2022,” the photo caption reads .

Prime Minister Rama on Thursday appreciated the importance of Europe as a community, adding that, “the idea of ​​community is an old idea, perhaps as old as Europe itself.”

He expressed his conviction that the project will develop and consolidate further.

“Even the format of the meeting was very unusual because, after the plenary session, where I had the honor of being one of the speakers, which I believe was an extraordinary honor for Albania given that it was a format with more than 40 countries, we worked in round tables and elaborated on the issues related to our proposal and also the hottest issues, from the worldwide energy crisis to Putin’s inflation and definitely also to the impact of the ruble in our societies”, said Rama.

Fear has always been a decisive power throughout history of efforts to build a European Political Community, just like at certain moments it has been a hampering force to all formats, including the European Union itself. But, in a situation like this, Europe has reached a point where it has to create it in order to forecast the future.

“In this format we find ourselves in another integrated space and most important of all is that Albania has a completely different voice and a different influence, because it represents a part of Europe that is not in the United Europe, but remains Europe,” he emphasized.

Thursday’s meeting in Prague was attended by heads of state from EU member states and European countries, Turkey, Great Britain, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova and Georgia.

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed in May the creation of the European Political Community, with the participation of EU countries and neighbors, to address common political and security challenges.

/sm/