TIRANA, Aug  1  /ATA/ – By I.Vata/- The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, stated on Monday that the EU cannot be conceived of without the Western Balkans.

After the meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama, at the joint press conference, Sanchez thanked the government and the Albanians for their hospitality and appreciated Prime Minister Rama as a great friend and one of the most excellent politicians.

“I appreciate Prime Minister Rama, not only for the way he expresses himself, but for all his European commitments and of course for the way he acts and does politics, which are very important steps of Albania on the international level. I want to remind that less than a year ago we met with Prime Minister Rama in Madrid, which was the first visit of an Albanian prime minister in Spain and now it is the first visit of a Spanish prime minister in Albania,” he said.

Sanchez said that the war in Ukraine will never change the European values ​​that keep us united.

“It is true that the world was different then, February 24 changed our steps. The Russian invasion of Ukraine affects all territorial integrity and questions not only Ukraine but the entire international order, this war has caused many problems and worries. This war in Europe will never change the values ​​that keep us united and I believe that this war has only shown the strength of the EU, the path we must follow to cope with these consequences,” he said.

” I wish that this passionate pathway to EU that Albania has started under the stewardship of Edi Rama will be successful. The EU cannot be conceived of without the Western Balkans. Therefore, I think it is a positive idea that, in addition to the accession process and the agreements they sign with each country, it is good to create this European political community. Why? Because we will have the opportunity to talk about many topics to take this relationship to a higher political level between states and PMs in more flexible formats. The government of Spain is keen for this positive dynamic to be generated between the countries that are part of the EU and those that want to join the EU, so with much more flexible formats we have the opportunity to talk not only about specific issues of the region in the Balkans, but also about general political issues. For example, the pandemic two years ago, or now the energy crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine,” he said.

/sm/