Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the opening ceremony of the “Vienna Economic Forum – Tirana Talks 2015”
Firstly, I would like to thank all the guests who responded to our desire for a reflection on this event that closes our SEECP Presidency. A reflection on the Balkans from 15 years ago to this day, and 15 years away from today. That is why some great protagonists of the moment of historic change in the Balkans, and at the same time some of the greatest Europeanists, are here present.
I want to thank one by one, the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, a great connoisseur of the history and contemporaneity of the Balkans, but also a memorable contributor to the process of transformation of our region from a zone of divisions, conflicts and wars, in an area now living in peace and working for peace; Prime Minister of Italy, Massimo D’Alema, a precious friend of ours – and when I say ours, I mean not only ours as Albanians, but also of our neighbors – who is today president of the Foundation of Socialists and progressives in Brussels and also, a discerning connoisseur of Balkan issues, of the protagonists of Balkan history in this quarter of a century and on the other hand, a strong voice in the effort to advance the process that has brought us here; the French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine, who also has the special merit of being one of the protagonists of major changes for the Balkans, but also one of the great Europeanists of France and today’s Europe.
I am very happy to have here these three great friends who have come here today as free people, therefore, without any protocol and diplomatic constraints, which would hinder their ability to speak freely on the Balkans and on Europe, on problems both of the Balkans and of Europe, and on the ways to address and resolve these problems.
In addition, I would like to convey the greetings of President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair who, due to commitments taken prior to this event, cannot be here today. I am pleased also to thank for his presence the renowned economist, Professor Ricardo Hausmann, Director of Harvard’s Center for International Development, with whom and together with his team of higher excellence, our government has had the honor to cooperate since the first day of our work to address issues of sustainable development.
Of course, this event would not have been possible without the willingness of our friend, Dr. Erhard Busek, Austria’s vice chancellor and staunch leader of “Vienna Economic Forum”, with whom we shared in the last meeting in Vienna our desire to include in the end of the term of Albania’s SEECP Presidency the “Vienna Economic Forum” as a space of dialogue and interaction, to see together where we came from and where we go, and to address in a forum, together with six prime ministers of the region, today’s problems and opportunities to accelerate their solution.
Thank you all once again! It is truly a great honor for us to have you here, and it is a privilege for us to have the opportunity to use your experience and your contribution to a process where we are aware that above all, we need knowledge, we need to deepen knowledge, as well as to improve the quality of interaction through knowledge.
You know that today Prime Minister Vučić is on a visit in Tirana. He came for the return match within the bilateral visit, but also to attend our event tomorrow. Last year at the end of August we, prime ministers of a territory which has been identified by everyone as a territory of war, as the powder keg of Europe, sat down together neither to share the bickering of the past nor to challenge the boundaries that divide our countries, but to talk about the future. Thanks to the vision and invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and to the friendly support provided by Germany to what is already called the Berlin Process, we have opened a new chapter. Undoubtedly, what Doctor Busek said is not only true, but it is also our concern, because it was an historic, exceptional and unprecedented moment for the prime ministers of this region to be together in a family photo. But it will be neither historical nor unseen in Vienna, one year after Berlin, when not only it will be important to come together, but it will be more important to ascertain what progress has been made in a year and at what pace this process has moved, and where we can go if this is the pace we can keep.
It is the same for the meeting with the Prime Minister of Serbia. I am confident that when we meet for the third time, there will not be any special attention anymore. Of course, this is a very big process, but it is completely inadequate for our people, for our people who appreciate these meetings, because we see in them the opportunity to look further, we see them as concrete realizations of cooperation and interaction. We are all aware that last year we could sit together, for the first time, in a new space of peace, not because we have become angels, and our ancestors and the ancestors of our ancestors, who fought and shed the blood of each other, were demons. We are the same people, we are like them but, unlike them, we have the great fortune to lead our countries and peoples in a stage of history where the people of the region are identified with Europe, are identified with the dream to become part of the European Union. And hadn’t this dream and this identification existed, the peace would have been impossible, as it was impossible for over 100 years.
And if in our region where, 100 years prior to meeting with Chancellor Merkel in the German chancellery, the First World War began and the following years were marked by wars, tensions, conflicts and a division which is very strange to all of us, today, the Prime Minister of Serbia is the first visitor of this level in history that steps foot in Albania. This happened because there is a belief according to which, thanks to the European perspective, peace is worth it.
On the other hand, if enlargement fatigue is talked about in Europe, we are threatened by endurance fatigue. Balkan people have never distinguished themselves for being patient, and their self-restraint does not last long when they wait for their dreams to come true. Moreover, today we are not part of a continent that is going through its best days. On the other hand Europe is going through a phase of non-small internal turmoil, while outside, at its borders, real threats to peace, to the great project of the European Union and to the prospect that our peoples have identified in the European Union have emerged.
Geopolitical threats by third parties, who are ready at any moment to incite tensions and to rekindle old conflicts, with the most absurd statements or threats of terrorism and extremism which, if they concern Europe once, they concern us much more than once, because this is a region where ethnic interweaving and religious interweaving are part of being together, but they have been also part of many bitter histories until the recent past. We are all aware that the independence of Europe in the approach to the dream, effort and ambition of our people and our countries, to break once and for all from the past, is in a very strong contrast with the speed with which threats to the borders of Europe are increasing, and for the sake of truth, they can find in this region both the most fertile and the most ready terrain, because it is the most vulnerable from many points of view, for carrying and spreading what we would never want to see between us and in the middle of Europe.
Of course it is very difficult for us to deal with this peace alone. This peace is too big for our shoulders, and regional cooperation among us may become an unrealized attempt, if it is not strongly supported by Europe and the European Union. At a time like the present time that, we are convinced, is no longer as it was 10-15 years ago, when we needed Europe and Europe could succeed without us. Today, we believe that Europe needs this area of it body as much as the peoples of this area need Europe.
Our fear is that tomorrow it will be too late. Our economies are very fragile, our budgetary powers are very limited and our opportunities to meet the great challenge of this peace with our financial resources are extremely limited. Meanwhile people want Europe, want to be part of the European Union, because they see in the European Union their ultimate salvation from antidemocratic threats within our countries and societies, but also from threats coming from outside our region. And, obviously, they want and we want Europe here, in our region. This means that we want the Berlin Process to transform our way of being, as it is obviously happening, but also our way of living. For this, we have to do our outmost in addition to receiving the support without which it would be impossible to build the infrastructure networks that would bring people closer to each other and at a faster pace, as they would bring closer and faster the joint projects for energetic security, taking into account that the region has a very great potential and that it can be very useful, not only to itself but also to Europe, as well as with respect to any other interaction from education to culture.
It was for all these reasons that we wanted strongly this event, we wanted strongly this cooperation with the Vienna Economic Forum, taking into account that it is not just the part that relates to the funds for supporting these projects, but it is also the part that relates to the increase of foreign investments in our region. Even in this respect we are convinced that we can do much more and interact in order to create much larger space for big companies and strategies for big investors who, unlike yesterday when they would invest in Albania, do not invest only in Albania, but invest in a much larger market. Many thanks for your attention. With a strong desire that our friends, who will spend these 24 hours in Tirana, will feel very well, and being strongly convinced that tomorrow we will be more grateful for the contributions they will provide us, I wish you a serene evening and tomorrow a passionate and exciting day for the Balkans that, no matter what, has a virtue: it is never boring.
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