The Prime Minister attends a summit in Albania
Prime Minister Robert Abela addressed a summit in Albania, where he welcomed an agreement to reduce roaming charges between Western Balkan states and EU nations starting in October 2023.
EU and Western Balkans leaders worked to strengthen their partnership at a summit on Tuesday in the Albanian capital, Tirana, where they covered topics including migration, cyber security and diplomatic ties as well as the war in Ukraine.
Abela welcomed that the EU is allocating one billion euros to address the energy crisis and help in the change to the clean use of energy in the Balkan region.
He said that this strategy of support and mitigation of the impact of the situation has been adopted in Malta so that families and businesses could continue to benefit from stable energy and fuel prices.
The Prime Minister said that the policy of this government led to economic stability and social stability in the country.
On the subject of energy, Abela spoke about other actions that the EU has taken to address the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine, including the work in favor of the security of the food supply and the agreement on a mechanism for the joint purchase of gas, and a strategy to reduce the impact of the increase in gas and energy prices, which was reached at the meeting of the European Council that convened in Brussels last October.
Abela said that the Balkan countries are seeing their future as partners in the European Union, and that Malta is supporting this in a spirit of strong cooperation in favor of stability and prosperity on a regional basis, from which it will benefit the generations of today and tomorrow.
He spoke about the work on rule of law reforms that need to be done through more cooperation between the EU and the Western Balkans region.