European Albania won yesterday

Despite the winning party in yesterday's elections, overall, calm and citizenship with which over 1.4 million of us went to the ballot boxes and expressed their will are totally European values and consolidated democracies. With this calm, order and citizen, we voted for our future yesterday, no matter which party we gave him the vote. And our future is a member of the European Union. And whatever party we've given the vote to, that winner we will strongly ask to bring us closer to Brussels in the next four years. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is also the centre of the European Union government, called the European Commission. There are tens of thousands of Albanian families among us whose children study at universities in European countries. These families know that with a passport of a European Union member state, their children would have ten times as many opportunities to be employed in the European Union after completing university studies in these countries. Not only schooling but also building life in a Western European country is still the most inspired dream of our parents but also of our children.

And an important indicator for increasing our country's image and importance in the face of the main decision-making structures of the European Union is the number of high-level meetings that have been held in Tirana. We haven't had one in 2005-2018. And that was understandable. Albania, although a stable and peaceful statesman in the Western Balkans in continuation, was too small and periphery. Later, something began to change for the better. In the past three years, four summits (highest level) of European Union management structures have been held in Tirana, most of which are located in Brussels. By comparison, in Skopje, such summits in 2023-2025 have developed only one and none in Podgorica. On May 16th 2025, the European Political Community Summit will be held in Tirana, where 50 heads of states from European Union and candidate countries and hopeful for EU membership are expected to participate.

On October 16, 2023, the Berlin Process Summit was completed. February 28, 2024 Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, February 29th 2024 The EU-Western Balkans summit is in Tirana. Within 135 days, October 16th 2023-29 February 2024, three important summits have been held in Tirana, turning the Albanian capital into the continent's diplomatic development centre. Once unequipped with meetings of an international level, they have already created the feeling that keeping them in Tirana has become something common. They have caused Albania's factorisation to rise to a higher degree and its contribution as a NATO member state and EU candidate to be less modest. Albania had not previously seen European leaders together stay in Tirana as it did on October 16, 2023. Unfortunately, the only bitter statistics for our country of the last few years in progress in the EU is that following the boycott of mandates in Albania's 2019, our main opposition has been called zero times by senior officials in Brussels, compared to 7 times the calls and meetings of the main opposition in northern Macedonia and four times in Montenegro, within the same period.

What did we gain from the four European Union summits in Tirana? First, very important funds for us. In three years 2025-2027, summits helped us to provide 922m euros for our development. Second, with Brussels closer, our country has confirmed not only an ally and reliable partner for the West, but also an important factor of peace in the troubled Balkan region. Thirdly, Albania gained the status of a country that is not just a safe US and EU partner. But a centre that through the maintained summits, Balkan countries have shown solidarity, especially for support of Ukraine against Russia.

Albania has already received the status of the country, which serves as a counterweight against any prorus efforts in this region. Fourth, Albania gained part of a major Balkan region development project in 2025-2027, and not only from the 6 billion Euros package EU provides for this region but also from another 30 billion euros on the basis of reforms to be undertaken. By our vote yesterday, we showed that we can quickly get to the EU another 1 billion euros a year, given the right political strength, which leads to successful and time carrying out our investments and reforms to the European Union.