“In their best phase” they are according to him Eddie Rama Albanian-Greek relations. The Albanian Prime Minister spoke at the 8th Delphi Economic Forum which is being held in Delphi between April 26 and 29 and is under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The discussion with Eddie Rama was moderated by Frederik PleitgenCNN correspondent.

Edi Rama continued his intervention saying that between Albania and Greece “people’s relations are very good and politicians should adapt to them” and added that “Greece is a critical and strategic partner in terms of the perspective for accession to the European Union. It has practically shown its support, both for us and for North Macedonia, after the name problem was solved.”

“The volume of transactions with Greece is much smaller than it could be” noted the Albanian Prime Minister, who however pointed out that there are possibilities for much greater Greek investments in Albania and Albanian investments in Greece. Speaking about the relationship between Albania and the European Union, Mr. Rama noted “we achieved what we wanted. To open accession talks. For years the EU wanted to “marry” us but not to talk to us. Now we’re talking, so the “marriage” is next. We will not give up, if the EU does, I don’t know. But I think that after the war in Ukraine, the EU is also more committed to this position.”

As for what the European perspective can offer his country, Edi Rama answered: “We are working on the accession discussions. What the EU can offer a country you cannot create. It’s a huge amount of know-how about how you build an independent state, how you build institutions based on the rule of law.” In any case, the Albanian prime minister made it clear that the countries of the Western Balkans are quite different from each other, explaining this. “Putin’s popularity in Albania reaches up to 1.2%, while in Serbia it is around 80%. Despite their energy dependence and influence, the six Balkan countries have aligned themselves with the principles of the democratic community and condemned Russian aggression.”

But at the same time, he noted that the European Union should not push more than some countries are ready to bear. “Serbia has not imposed sanctions. But we have to be careful because this could be a turning point. Pushing Serbia too hard will break what has been built so far. And for that there are objective reasons. We have no natural gas and no trade with Russia. But for Serbia, the imposition of sanctions would mean that they would lose natural gas, which could create uncontrollable situations.”

“Greece and Bulgaria can play a special role as they are a pillar of stability and development in the region,” Roumen Radev, president of Bulgaria, said in turn in a discussion moderated by the correspondent of ERT and APE-MPE in Cyprus, Marianna Kalogeraki. The Bulgarian president went on to say that “Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine has changed our way of thinking about what solidarity and good neighborliness means. Bulgaria and Greece don’t just have excellent relations. We have a shared responsibility for stability and prosperity in our region. We share a common responsibility. We have a strong common political will and vision for the European future of our region.” Mr. Radev spoke about the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine but also about an “opportunity” that this presents. “We must take advantage of our strategic position. Russia disrupted the northern corridor. Now its our turn. The traffic is increasing on our side and it’s time to take advantage of this opportunity,” said the Bulgarian president.

The country’s prime minister spoke of Kosovo’s aggressive “turn” to renewable energy sources, Albin Kurti in a discussion moderated by the journalist of ERT and the Parapolitics, Kostas Papachlimintzos. He even invited all the companies in the specific sector to invest there. Asked about the message he wants to send to Serbia in relation to their European perspective, he called on the Serbs to “disengage from the Milosevic regime that committed genocide in Kosovo”, stressing at the same time that “the European Union is the most important political project and the greatest peace-making tool since World War II. We must contribute and become members of the EU,” he said.

Finally, in the same debate, the former president of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, referred to the Russian intervention in his country saying that “Just like that, one day Gazprom takes you and blackmails you. I want to thank Greece, which made possible the elimination of energy dependence on Russia. Russia uses any opportunity it gets to destabilize the Balkans. Even on election day, we saw Russian attempts to manipulate the result.”