The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, has repeated the calls for all the countries in the region to join the “Open Balkan” initiative, while he has also called on Turkey, Greece, Italy and Hungary to join this initiative.

“For us, it is very important that not only all the countries of the region join this initiative, but also Turkey, Greece, Italy or Hungary”, said Rama during a meeting with other leaders of the region in Belgrade.

Rama told how his counterpart from an EU member state expressed his indignation as to why they were not invited to “Open Balkan”.

“We were discussing ‘Open Balkan’, and a fellow prime minister from a European Union country said to me, ‘Why aren’t we invited?’ I told him that he will discuss it with my colleagues and we will certainly be open to invite you, and I am very glad that we are seeing signs that the day is coming that they want to be invited to the “Open Balkan” more and more countries that they belong to those spaces where we have been waiting for so many years to be invited”.

“For me, it confirms that the Balkans are as important for Europe as Europe is for the Balkans.”