Energy crisis, Rama-Vucic: A hard winter approaches The EU not err twice

“Yesterday was the most beautiful open Balkan day. It could have been a typical bad day for the Balkans as a whole and instead of opening the doors to people of labor, land, production, food and, for many around the world, we could have opened the door to another bad news of tension, conflict, war hazard and so on. Fortunately it happened first. This is the Open Balkans. This is the choice we have made, to draw more people, the things we have to solve, to solve with patience and understanding, and without forgetting that we have so many things to work for. This winter is probably the hardest winter we've had in years.

We will see plans involving lights off after 10:00, which means closing bars, which will be the same as in the pandemic - the closing of life. We've talked about cooperation in this direction, about staying close to each other. We in Albania have made a decision, which I do not know yet whether it is crazy or very optimistic, not to increase the price of energy for families and small business. The question is how long this story will last. I repeat the appeal to the EU not to make with us the shame it did at the time of the pandemic. That made us go to China and just saw inside its castle. Even EU leaders have accepted this”, Rama said.

Even Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said the EU should help the Balkans, while adding that the future must find prepared and work to find the best solution to the situation.

Our companies, our farmers, know this initiative is extremely important to them. About the crisis group. A difficult winter is approaching. We have seen that there will be assistance from the EU. Partial assistance or support to buy the necessary amounts of energy will be very important and excellent for all our countries. It is also a burden to survive winter. We talked about the gravity of energy projects. If we had a better MV pipeline, we'd have a better energy situation than we'd use capacity when there's no gas. We're in trouble on both sides. The future should find us better prepared. Albania has coal, we don't have it. We'll see what's best for the parties.

Any decision on agricultural products or meat will not refer to the countries of the Open Balkans. Everything we need ourselves, anything that will be available to Serbia, will also be for Albania and North Macedonia. I'm happy for everything we managed to organize yesterday and today. It is a great honor to be a member of the Open Balkans. I'm so proud to create something like that. We can walk not only side by side but also be better than the rest of the world”, Vucic said.