Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama emphasized today the necessity of deepening the “Berlin Process”, as a historic opportunity in the conditions when the EU is ready to support a new financial and economic plan for the Western Balkans.

In a television interview from Ulqin, Montenegro, Rama emphasized that the Open Balkans was an initiative born out of the need to advance the Berlin Process and has fulfilled the mission for which it was born.

Prime Minister drew attention to the fact that “in October, Albania is hosting the Berlin Process Summit for the Western Balkans, which is being held for the first time in Tirana, since Angela Merkel opened the process in 2014”.

“It is an extremely important summit because we are prepared for a big step forward. We are working with the European Union on a new financing and economic support plan for all the countries in the region that we want very much to make it concrete at the Berlin Summit in Tirana, due in October and it is a realistic plan,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that “Ursula Von der Leyen in Bratislava gave a first message regarding the plan to increase financing, to increase the access of the countries of the Western Balkans to the common European market by increasing the economic instruments”.

“In the meantime we have to deal with this, and of course the ‘Berlin Process’ is now our main focus. The Open Balkans was an initiative that was born out of the need to push forward the Berlin Process and has fulfilled the mission for which it was born. We must now plunge headlong into the Berlin Process because we have this opportunity, we have the Berlin Process in Tirana. We are able to own it as a process with the great support we have from Germany, from Chancellor Scholz and from everyone else and in the meantime you understand what that means. October is close, July is here, how we can keep the European Union together? Not everyone is attentive, not everyone there has the interest that [the main EU] leaders have in supporting us, in supporting the Western Balkans, if we continue to take Oso Kuka [i.e. isolation policy] stance. This is the reason why I believe that the Berlin Process is our future,” said Rama.

Rama said that he plans to make a tour in the region to meet with all the prime ministers and presidents of the region and to talk about this process, requiring cohesion and cooperation.

“I am planning to tour the region. I want to go meet all the prime ministers and presidents in Skopje, Prishtina, Sarajeva and Podgorica to inform them about what we are doing. The Berlin Process is our umbrella. I am very proud of the “Open Balkans”. Without that initiative, it would have been impossible to release the 3 police officers a few days ago,” he added.

/a.p./