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TIRANA, October 17 – The president of France, Emmanuel Macron concluded a two-day visit to Albania on Tuesday which was highlighted by four bilateral agreements and the engagement of Paris to support the EU integration of this Balkan country conveyed in the meetings he had with President Bajram Begaj and Prime Minister Edi Rama.
During the visit Macron handed over to the Albanian well known novelist, Ismail Kadare the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor title awarded to him in an official ceremony on Tuesday.
Macron arrived in Tirana on Monday after the summit of the Berlin Process which gathered European Union leaders with Western Balkan countries on Monday. He didn’t attend the talks because of the attack in which a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people were wounded at a school in northern France.
Macron met with his Albanian counterpart, Bajram Begaj, marking the first state visit of a French president to this Balkan country.
President Begaj underlined during the meeting that this visit demonstrates the common interest in strengthening bilateral relations, as well as in terms of peace, security, and development of the Western Balkans region.
Albania’s European integration and developments in the region were part of the talks with President Macron. Begaj expressed his gratitude for the support that France and President Macron have given and are giving to the process of expansion and European integration of Albania and other countries of the Western Balkans region through the Berlin Process.
He also praised the initiative undertaken a year ago by President Macron for the launch of the European Political Community as an initiative that gives more opportunities to Albania and other candidate countries in the European Union to have more access to EU projects- of, especially in the field of university and student exchanges.
Prime Minister Edi Rama praised the visit of Macron, the first of a French president after a century-long wait.
“The presence of the President confirms the belief that Albania’s European path and Albania’s growth in the ambition to become the Europe of the Balkans is irreversible,” said Rama in the joint press conference with Macron.
Rama did not hide the ambition that Albania become the ‘European reference of this Balkan community’, and as he said, “we will continue to invest to embody Europe because in the end the process of integration, of reunification are processes that have value as long as they transform themselves.”
President Macron said that unlike a few years ago, when France and the Netherlands were leaders in blocking Albania’s integration into the EU, now they are among the most diligent supporters.
“I am convinced that your country is anchored in Europe, not only in this area where they wanted to close it many times while you had that special character of the Western Balkans, but also in our Mediterranean, in the heart of our continent . Yes, your future is completely in this Europel”, said Macron.
The signed agreements were on the Roadmap for economic cooperation between France and Albania, in the field of culture, police cooperation and the memorandum of Aid Coordination with the French Development Agency (AFD). /argumentum.al
