Athens, 11 November 2022

Hellenic Parliament Vice-President Athanasiou meets with Deputy Speaker of Parliament of Albania Agron Gjekmarkaj

The 2nd Vice-President of the Parliament and Chair of the Special Standing Committee on Parliamentary Ethics Charalambos Athanasiou, the Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Foreign Affairs Anastasios Dimoschakis and the Member of the Greece-Albania Parliamentary Friendship Group Konstantinos Barkas, had a meeting with the Vice-President of the Parliament of Albania, Agron Gjekmarkaj.

Τhe meeting agenda included: Albania’s accession process, as well as bilateral issues of interest, i.e.the demarcation of maritime zones, issues regarding the Greek minority in Albania and economic and commercial relations.

During the meeting, Mr Athanasiou stressed the importance of Albania's integration into the European family, as beneficial not only fot the country itself, but also for the entire Western Balkan region, which,- in the context of destabilisation caused by the war in Ukraine-, is vulnerable to third-country leverage. He also reiterated Greece’s commitment to assist the neighbouring country, providing know-how regarding implementation of required reforms.

Acknowledging the progress made on issues concerning the Greek minority in Albania, Mr. Athanasiou restated the need to continue the effort, also characterising the treatment of such issues in "minority" terms as obsolete, using, instead, the term "Community" when referring to Albanians residing in Greece. He also welcomed both the deepening of bilateral relations and the strengthening of the two countries’ economic and commercial cooperation.

Referring to the alternative of resolving the issue of maritime zones delimitation by appeal to the Court in The Hague, the need to step up the process for Special Agreement between parties was stressed, taking advantage of current favourable circumstances raising the opportunity for constructive cooperation of both sides’ experts.

Mr Dimoschakis welcomed the decision to hold the upcoming EU Summit on December 6 in Tirana, which proves the EU's focus and attention on the Western Balkans’region, while Mr Barkas stressed the importance of strengthening the rights of both the Greek minority in Albania and the Albanian community in Greece, which shall benefit our bilateral relations.

Mr Gjekmarkaj expressed his admiration for Greece as the cradle of democratic institutions, and asked that Greece keep up the assistance and support to Albania at all levels, in order to realise the top priority goal of the country's integration into the European family.

 

 High resolution images







Back