TIRANA, July 8 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting Tirana at the start of a regional tour, meeting with the country’s top officials and discussing economic cooperation at a business forum.
In her one-day visit, Merkel is scheduled to meet with her counterpart, Prime Minister Edi Rama, and President Bujar Nishani, before speaking at the German-Albanian Business Conference, making her only public appearance in the regional tour, which will also take her to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Merkel’s visit follows on Berlin’s efforts last year to take an active leadership role to help the Western Balkans along their EU integration path.
The Western Balkans have a “European perspective,” Merkel said. “All states in the Western Balkans should have the opportunity to join the European Union if they fulfill the accession requirements.”
Ahead of the visit, the Albanian and German governments signed agreements worth a total of 107.5 million euros to promote Albania’s energy and water supply sectors.
The support announced Monday, includes government loans worth 106 million euros and a grant of 1.5 million euros. Germany has been one of Albania’s main EU donors since the countries re-established diplomatic ties in 1988, offering 1 billion euros in mostly soft development loans to sectors such as energy, water and education, as well as rural and urban development.
In addition to economic and EU integration issues, German officials are also likely to discuss the increase in asylum claims from Albanians in Germany, the vast majority of whom are would-be economic migrants and thus ineligible for asylum
Albanians officials have called on the country’s citizens not to fall victims to scams that promise asylum in Germany and urged them to get informed and follow the rules set in the country’s visa-free agreement with much of the European Union.
