In a joint conference with Prime Minister Edi Rama in Paris, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, congratulated Albania for the reforms within the EU integration and reiterated France’s support.

Among other things, he underlined that France will show its determination for the Western Balkans for the European Union to make it stronger against wars.

Emmanuel Macron’s speech:

I am very happy, Mr. Prime Minister, that I am waiting for you here as part of your official visit to France. You are at home in every sense of the word. You who use our language very well, who have lived in our country in this city, are also here because France loves you, it loves you and your country and I really wanted to welcome you in Paris after the reception you gave me last October during the first visit of a president of the French Republic to Albania, since the independence of Albania in 1912.

These two cross visits and the dialogue we have with each other testify to the extraordinary dynamics of the relations between Albania and France. You know you can trust my determination to intensify even more. I want to repeat the commitment of France in favor of the European commitment of Albania and beyond, of the movement we have for the Western Balkans.

As I underlined six months ago in Tirana, here it is only about acting for the unification of Europe, to make it stronger, more sovereign in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine, but also in the face of common threats and challenges. It is also a promise of peace for the entire region. Since the holding of the first intergovernmental conference between the EU and Albania in July 2022, Albania has continued its European path with determination.

You can count on our support to accompany you on this path, in order for the negotiations to proceed as quickly as possible, and I tell you that we are impressed by the totality of the reforms and the capacities to advance in all these last years, months the last under your direction.

I also want to welcome the special and strong voice of Albania in the region and on the international stage. This is what happened during the last two years when your country was in the United Nations Security Council.

Recently, you hosted a regional summit in Tirana in which you also invited President Zelenskyy to further strengthen support for Ukraine. This was an important moment for the unity of the region and support for President Zelenskyy and his people.

In all regional issues, the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo is necessary, where your voice is valuable. Our exchanges today will allow us to continue on this path and take stock of the sites we have opened together to strengthen our precious partnership in all areas.

All these sites have progressed and I am happy about the signing soon of an intergovernmental agreement, which will give a new impulse to our cooperation, especially in the key areas of water management, sustainable tourism and innovation. This last topic is at the center of your visit because this afternoon you will go to Station F for the launch of a France-Albania innovation council.

The French Development Agency will continue to support Albania in its economic reforms and energy transition and the signing of a loan of 120 million euros for environmental reform and a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, will allow us to overcome these stages and even more than those we started 6 months ago with the entrepreneurs who had come with me then.

In Tirana, culture and education are at the heart of our exchanges, whether in the Palace of Brigades and the figure of Ismail Kadare or even in the France cube, this space that you wanted to reserve for France in the Pyramid. I am also happy about the cultural, intellectual and human exchanges between the two countries. All these constitute a beautiful promise for our bilateral relations.

To close my speech, I want to say how much I admire the path your country has taken for friendship, for very deep European feelings. I would say that maybe in fact the French are like this even more than the French, the Europeans, so we pay attention to this and this is very important for us because it is you, it is us, the relationships are special and this is thanks to this joint work.

Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister!