The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Emanuela Del Re, received at the Farnesina the Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Etjen Xhafaj. The meeting took stock of Albania’s EU integration process, with respect to which the Deputy Minister confirmed Italy’s staunch support and expressed her best wishes for the upcoming opening of the accession negotiations.
With reference to the present delicate domestic political situation in Albania, the Deputy Minister urged her interlocutor to convey her strong invitation for the Country’s political parties to dialogue, in the general interest of the Country and in view of the adoption and implementation of the reforms needed for Albania to proceed along the road towards European integration. She also emphasised the importance to “give young Albanians a prospect for the future,” recalling that the Country has one of the youngest populations in the whole continent.
Deputy Minister Xhafaj spoke of the need to further tighten the two Countries’ bilateral economic relations by creating mechanisms to favour the attraction of Italian investments in the Country. A focus was then placed on the Albanian diaspora in Italy, of which Deputy Minister Del Re recognised the economic and social contribution. In this context, the two deputy ministers also discussed the possibility of teaching Albanian as a second language in Italian schools in the areas in which the Albanian community is more numerous.
