Dear Christian,

Dear Luigi,

Dear deputy ministers and dear friends from Brussels attending this meeting.

I would like to start by thanking the European Commission, especially the EC team and the Albanian team working on “the screening process”, which has just begun based also on the conclusions of the European Union and on the mandate given by the Commission to work with Albania and Macedonia in this regard.

For us, 2019 is an open horizon with a clear calendar, June 2019, and clear tasks that we intend to achieve with the help of the European Commission and the available technical assistance assigned for the Albanian institutions, so that this process culminates with the start of EU accession talks in June 2019.

In this context, we are working and trying to have a positive national narrative, because it is very important that the political climate in the country, alongside the work of public administration, be such as to enable the achievement of this national objective. Along with the positive national narrative, it is very important to have a positive regional narrative as well. At the moment it seems like we are in three different lanes, Montenegro and Serbia in the first lane, as they are already having accession negotiation talks, Albania and Macedonia in the second lane, since we have just started screening process together and Bosnia and Herzegovina with Kosovo in the third lane.  Last week, together with the Austrian presidency, the Austrian Foreign Minister and the Croatian Foreign Minister, together with a group of experts and policy makers, we discussed the possibilities of regional cooperation and providing the best experience in this direction, so that regardless of the existing lane we also have a better regional narrative about this process What are we currently doing? First, we are working to consolidate and deepen the reform process, especially in key areas related to the rule of law, issues related to organized crime, corruption, public administration reform, and fundamental human rights and freedoms, with particular emphasis on the protection of national minorities, property rights. Furthermore, issues related to the strengthening of administrative capacities are as much important. Together with the European delegation, our team has made a first analysis of the needs that we need to address during this process. Along with the Director of Public Administration, we are sitting to discuss these needs and I believe that in a very short period of time, we will address the needs that arise in this process. There does not suffice to say that the whole range of tasks, issues and needs will progressively accumulate. This is the reason why today, in this meeting, we have invited deputy ministers and general secretaries, who, due to the duties assigned by the law, are high level contact points in the respective institutions. Convinced that the European integration process is not just having a few contacts in line ministries or other institutions present here, but it is a process that has to do with the full reform of the entire public administration and the way we will have to work in the following period. We have started the screening process for Chapter 23. We have a clear agenda from the European Commission in such process. It is very important that besides preparing for this step, we now begin to convert our commitments into concrete laws and policies and to strengthen human resources, in order to precede the deadline, related to the start of membership talks. The first impression is very important, as a foreign proverb says, as you do not have a second chance to leave a first impression. In this regard, all of our work, our internal institutional coordination is an extremely challenging process. I am convinced that Vladimir, attending us from New York, who is the former Chief of the Negotiating team, Croatia’s Ambassador Drobnjak will share with us Croatia’s experience of. In this process, we have analyzed some models and to be honest we have come to the conclusion that there is no model that can serve all countries because different countries have different specifications. We have prepared an inter-institutional cooperation scheme that combines either political decision-making, which is in any case political, the rightful involvement of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister, and ministers, especially on key issues pertaining to the rule of law, in other words, what the Commission considers to be a fundamental issue to be addressed on the first stage and on the basis of the reinforced approach that our countries have in the process.  Second, we have identified the involvement of Parliament as very important. The Croatian model, but not only, is a model to be taken into consideration. We have considered the model of Montenegro, Serbia and other countries that are involved in this process. In addition, the engagement of parliament is also a very good communication line for channeling the voices of civil society and the business community. We see that in chapter 23 and 24, the range of issues we need to address is quite wide and our capabilities are limited in some cases, so it is very important to hear the voice of each professional and contributor in this process. As Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, I have made a call to create a register of all Albanian people, whether they are residents in Albania or abroad, who can contribute to this process and in accordance with their profiles, experience and education.

Therefore, we would have the opportunity to engage them, depending on the needs that will arise. In this context, to sum up, I want to make a final comment that I hope to be as clear as possible and to quench as well those very high expectations about the negotiation process. I have been often asked, and maybe this is the best place to say, although a good part of the participants here know what I am saying: This is not a process of negotiation, in the classical sense of the word where we will negotiate with the EU and where both sides are expected to give something from their initial position. This is a process we intend to join the EU. Consequently, we need to align the legislation, policies, and the way the institutions function with the standards, imposed by the acquis communautaire. In this context, this exercise is not an exercise of this group here, nor of the future team that will be the Albanian team of negotiators, nor of the chiefs of 35 working groups or of people who work daily in the screening process. This is a much wider process, and in this context we greatly appreciate the support of the European Commission for its continued support on strengthening our administrative capacity, because during this year, we intend to strengthen our coordination role, which in some cases it appears deficient, our coordinating role in relation to independent institutions. For example, when we need to report on the vetting process, we always consider that vetting bodies are independent institutions. When we need to report on a compelling story or track record in the field of rule of law, it is not enough to simply provide information that may come from the State Police or the Prosecution, but we need to verify at all levels including court decisions, and so on. Besides the work we do with the European Commission on the screening process, we should combine that with the implementation process of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, as we are approaching next year and the first decade of the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which came into force in 2009. All these issues, together with the team of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, mainly with the part that deals more directly with European integration, under the guidance of Deputy minister Gent, but also with various international and local experts, we have also prepared some models that we intend to consider and follow, when applying this necessary structure to cope with this voluminous process. I want to leave the floor  to Christian and thank him once again for being here with us today, to share some of his ideas and suggestions about what we should consider in this process. Thank you, I leave the floor to Christian!