"The EU needs the Western Balkans" - Rama: Deep transformation, Albania aims for membership within a decade
The European Union needs the Western Balkans. This is the statement made by Prime Minister Rama at the Annual Conference of the Eastern Bloc Commission, an important forum that brings together representatives of politics, business and diplomacy to discuss economic, geopolitical developments and future challenges in Europe.
“The energy corridors that Europe needs pass through our geography. The digital networks that Europe wants require our territory. The critical minerals that Europe has suddenly rediscovered as strategic lie beneath our soil. China understands this. Russia certainly understands this. Europe understands this too, but sometimes forgets it when writing its own plans.
Albania has opened all thirty-three negotiation chapters faster than any candidate country in the history of enlargement, but to tell the truth, not because we are the best, but because we started very late and were unprepared.
We are moving forward with fiery determination. Our objective is clear. To conclude the negotiations by 2027, something we have discussed and agreed with the European Commission. To become full members of the European Union before the end of this decade. Let me be equally clear. For Albania, membership is not simply about joining a club. It is not about receiving funds. It is not about receiving institutional trappings. It is about transforming our state, our institutions and our way of thinking and carrying out the deepest democratic transformation in our national history, ensuring that, finally, for once in our history, we are where the people want to be, not where history decides we should be,” said Rama.
The Prime Minister also focused on technology, stating that Albania is undergoing one of the largest digital transformations in Europe.
“The future of Europe will not be decided only by geopolitics, it will also be decided by innovation. The next great competition between nations will not be fought primarily through territory, it will be fought through intelligence. Artificial intelligence. Digital infrastructure. Scientific research. Technological sovereignty. The capacity to innovate faster than competitors. Artificial intelligence is not just another technological revolution.
For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, technological leadership may determine not only who gets richer, but who remains sovereign. Europe clearly understands this, which is why it is increasingly important to talk about technological sovereignty, but sovereignty requires scale, and scale requires integration.
For its part, Albania, on its modest scale, is working on one of the most ambitious digital transformations in Europe. We are reimagining public administration focused on technology. We have digitized 95% of public services. Reducing bureaucracy has become our fixed idea.
We are extending artificial intelligence throughout governance. Not because technology is fashionable, but because innovation has become the shortest path from the periphery to the center. A greener, more digital and more innovative Albania is not only good for us, it is good for Europe”, emphasized the Head of Government.
In the end, Rama warned that Europe's greatest challenge may not come from an army crossing the border, but from an "avalanche of lies," as he calls it, that invades perception, weakens trust, and strikes democracy from within.
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