Throughout the years Albanian migration generally had positive effects on both Italy and Albania, creating a bridge between our countries, says Italian Ambassador to Tirana Massimo Gaiani in an exclusive interview with Tirana Times.
Tirana Times: Your Excellency, Italy currently holds the six-month Presidency of the European Union. What are your country’s priorities in the larger scale?
Ambassador Ambassador Massimo Gaiani: The priorities of the programme of our Presidency of the Council of the European Union can be summarized as follows: Growth and employment; a space for freedom and security, full exercise of citizenship rights; and a stronger role of Europe in the world.
The Italian Presidency will endeavor to place growth and employment at the centre of European policies and to define an economic framework capable of encouraging structural reforms within Member States. Real economy, “industrial renaissance”, with a particular focus on SMEs, as well as energy and climate policies for 2030 will be at the heart of growth initiatives.
Another priority is to minimize the gap European citizens perceive between them and the EU Institutions. Our Presidency will promote a more active role of the EU in areas where the European initiative adds value, such as protection of fundamental rights as well as migration and asylum policies. In this context, the Italian Presidency intends to develop a genuine solidarity at a European level and promote a European migration policy.
Italy will also strive for EU external action to be credible, consistent and equipped with the necessary tools to address global and regional challenges. And, if we look at our neighboring countries enlargement is a strategic priority for the Italian Presidency. Therefore, accession negotiations with Western Balkans will be encouraged and we will work to give new impetus also to the negotiations with Turkey.
TT: Obviously, EU enlargement and integration for the Western Balkans is very important for Albanians, and Italy has been very supportive to it. How do you see the future of the process for Albania?
M.G.: The granting of the candidate status to Albania was an important step forward for the European aspirations of the country. Of course Albania’s place is within the European family, but the piece of road towards full EU membership is not paved with laurels, and experience has shown that the closer one country gets, the bigger is the amount of work and the challenges to be faced in acquiring and applying the European standards and values. The future of the process is very clear: the opening of the accession negotiations depends on the fulfillment of the five Key priorities. Hard work and quality of reforms will be crucial for the future. The good news is that this process is in the interest of your country and will benefit all your citizens.
TT: What role will Italy’s play in such integration process?
M.G: In the future Italy will continue to play the same supportive role it has played so far: being a reliable advocate of Albania in Europe and a partner in helping, orientating or sharing experiences to ease the reformatory process undertaken by your country, especially in the fields of the 5 key priorities.
The fight against organized crime, for example, will be crucial for Albania to achieve the goal of European integration and Italy, as well as the EU, will continue to assist your country in this area. We have a long tradition of cooperation in this field, which goes back to the early ’90s when the Italian Department of Public Safety started to give an important contribution to the development of the Albanian State Police through training and provision of resources and equipment. Crucial is also the consolidation of the law enforcement capacities. In this field our country offers an important contribution by leading the European program PAMECA, aiming at bringing the performance of the Albanian police and judiciary closer to EU standards.
TT: Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini recently visited Tirana as a part of a regional tour. Any new developments in the Tirana portion?
M.G: The Minister Mogherini’s tour in the Region of the Western Balkans, one of the first mission abroad since Italy took the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, confirms the high importance that Italy put on the enlargement policy and our support to the European integration of the entire Balkan Region. During her visit, the Minister also announced our will to facilitate the dialogue between Albania and Serbia, by organizing during our Presidency a three-sided meeting in Rome. A protocol on development cooperation for the period 2014 – 2016 was signed,allocating an amount of 81.7 million euro to fields such as stable growth, competitiveness and efficient use of natural resources, investments on human resources, good governance and rule of law.
TT: How are current relations between Albania and Italy at the political level?
M.G: At their best! During her last visit in Tirana, Minister Mogherini defined the relations between our countries not only as friendly but also as fraternal. In a period of only nine months Albania received twice the visit of our Minister of Foreign Affairs. The former Foreign Minister Emma Bonino came in October 2013, and some days ago the current Minister Federica Mogherini met in Tirana the major representatives of all the Albanian Institutions. In March 2014 Albania was visited by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, and in May by the President of the Italian Senate Pietro Grasso, the two highest offices in the State. Your Authorities also visited Italy and had meetings with their counterparts. Your Prime Minister met our Prime Minister Letta and our Minister of Foreign Affairs last year in Rome and most of your Ministers visited their counterparts in Italy. The frequency of these high level meetings together with the signature in 2010 of the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership confirm how good and close are our bilateral relations.
TT: Economically, Italy is Albania’s largest trading partner. How do you see that role? And what more can be done to increase investments, which have fallen behind trade somewhat?
M.G: Italy, as you said, plays a leading role in Albania. The bilateral trade exchange is at very high levels and in recent years has continued to mark a positive trend, amounting to approximately 2 billion euros per year, a figure that is even more considerable if compared with the data of the Albanian population, just over 3 million. As for the main sectors of exchange, they are mainly machinery and equipment, food and agricultural products, materials for construction, textile and footwear.
I do believe in the development of an integrated market of the Western Balkan countries. Albania has a strategic geographic position and a leading role in this process: it is a gateway to the other Balkan countries and has a major market for the region. Albania has made progress in the infrastructural sector, significantly improving the conditions for the movement of goods, and in recent years has shown a vocation for export, seeking consumers outside its national borders. With this regard, I see the cooperation between Albanian and Italian companies as an opportunity to offer competitive products to the whole Balkan Region.
Italy has supported Albania in this path with substantial funding for infrastructures, such as the construction of roads and energy networks connecting Albania with Greece, Kosovo and Montenegro.
In order to take full advantage of these opportunities, it will be crucial to improve the business climate, reduce the burden of bureaucracy and strengthen the rule of law.
TT: There is a very large Albanian immigrants community in Italy. What role do you think that this community plays in the relations between the two countries?
M.G: With more than 500,000 people living, working and studying in Italy, Albanians represent the second largest foreign community in our country. They have shown an extraordinary ability to integrate, while preserving the richness of their culture and traditions, which also have ancient roots in our country. We don’t have to forget indeed that there are also historical villages populated by Albanians in Southern Italy. I also want to stress that the notable number of Albanian students who choose every year the Italian universities achieve excellent results and are considered the best foreign students in Italy in absolute terms.
Throughout the years Albanian migration generally had positive effects on both Italy and Albania, creating a bridge between our countries. Albanians gave a substantial contribution to the Italian economic growth; in the same way a lot of them contributed and are currently contributing to the development of Albania: at the beginning through a significant flow of financial remittances and, more recently, coming back with the experiences, expertise and professionalism in the medical, legal and cultural field they acquired in Italy.
TT: Thousands of Italian students, workers and professionals have moved to Albania. There are investors too, and the Albanian government wants more of the latter to come. How do you see this development?
M.G: I think it is very positive. I believe that there is still a potential for growth of Italian investments with regard to the traditional areas of bilateral economic cooperation, particularly the agri-food and the manufacturing sectors, especially in sub-contracting (fa谮), in which our companies can boast of know-how and expertise.
In addition, as you highlighted, the Albanian Government identified some priority sectors which I consider as emerging fields of cooperation for our two countries. If well regulated, they will undoubtedly represent driving factors for the development of Albania in the years to come. I am referring, for example, to tourism, especially coast tourism, which has a great potential given the beauty and the extent of the Albanian coasts.
The sectors I mentioned were the focus of a major event – the “Italian Week in Albania” – organized by the Italian Embassy in Tirana on last May, aiming at presenting the investment opportunities in the country to approximately 200 companies from Italy. This is a good signal of the growing interest of our investors towards Albania. The Italian and the Albanian Governments are working to create the conditions to turn this interest into actual investments.
