The details of the talk of French President Emanuel Macron with visiting Albanian PM Edi Rama in Paris on Monday were made public by the latter whose gist was bilateral cooperation between France and Albania.
“He (Macron) wanted to spend a working lunch with me to discuss bilateral relations, the progress of the program of the French Development Agency, which is committed to financing three important projects, where the most important one is the investment to finalize all the work that needs to be done to complete the investments made in the water supply of the city of Durrës and to finally guarantee, also for Durrës, 24 hours of uninterrupted water supply,” said Rama.
Another topic was an important funding for the power system, as well as another program for women and girls which is a very interesting program that will be implemented by Albania with the French Development Agency. “At the same time we talked about France’s investments in energy in Albania, where the company Voltalia is investing in the largest photovoltaic park in the region, in fact in Karavasta and also in 1 or 2 other important projects.”
According to Rama, they discussed the European investment plan for the Balkans which is already a funded plan and where Albania is actively engaged to receive funds for several important projects with national and regional impact on transport, infrastructure and digitalization.
Rama revealed they dwelt at length about the situation in the region, the progress of relations between the countries of the region, the dialogue process between Serbia and Kosovo, the process of implementation of the four EU freedoms in the framework of the Schengen Region and other topics.
Prime Minister Rama has indicated that he will not be a mediator in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.
“I am not the right person to mediate between Kosovo and Serbia, because I am a party and as a party, I necessarily protect the interests of Albania and Kosovo together. This is a process where it is up to the leaders of Kosovo to advance the dialogue as they see fit,” he said adding that he and his government will support.
“Of course at certain moments we may have different approaches on how to reach the goal, but the goal is absolutely the same and I am a party to it,” said Rama.
Another topic was the EU integration process and PM Rama insisted that Albania has done its homework but it is an ongoing process.
“We have done our job and everything will depend on the situation within the Council of Europe and the dynamics within the EU countries. So this is a known thing and there is no need to dwell on it,” said Rama. /argumentum.al
