On the eve of the new year, Prime Minister Edi Rama has conveyed a message to Albanian citizens, summarizing the country’s achievements over the last decade and providing messages of optimism for the year 2026.
In his speech, the Prime Minister emphasized that Albania has made progress in many areas, citing infrastructural developments, the improvement of the tourism sector and the growth of renewable energy. Rama proudly mentioned the reception of leaders of democratic Europe and NATO in the country, highlighting Albania’s role as a host of important international events.
The Prime Minister also highlighted successes in digital transformation, including the E-Albania platform, which according to him has saved citizens 620 million euros and 7,500 years of waiting at counters, placing Albania in 14th place for digital governance among 197 countries in the world.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, in his year-end message, reiterated the achievements, according to him, of the socialist government in 3 mandates and the upcoming challenges in the fourth mandate.
Edi Rama’s full message:
Dear fellow citizens wherever you are. Here comes another year to its end, leaving Albania higher than the day it entered.
During this year’s journey, most of you, in Albania, Europe, and elsewhere around the world, blessed the joint effort of the last decade, giving our government the extraordinary power of 83 mandates.
Thank you once again from me today, for the power with which, thanks to you, I and your elected officials will do for Albania, in the next four years, everything necessary to raise our national flag, in the courtyard of the House of the European Union.
In a decade, we have done what was unimaginable when we began counting our years in government.
We have made another Albania a reality, where this year all the leaders of Democratic Europe gathered, from Paris to Ankara, and from Kiev to London, to discuss the future of our continent.
Another Albania, where in 18 months all NATO leaders will gather for the annual Alliance Summit, which many other countries, which joined NATO long before us, have not yet had the privilege of hosting.
Another Albania, which, unlike not many years ago, no longer bows its head to any Albanian when they go outside its borders, from where millions and millions of tourists now flock to this country.
Another Albania, more tangible than ever in every corner of it, with Dibra turned into an extension of Tirana, thanks to the Arbri road; with Vermosh, Theth and Valbona, turned into tourist destinations, thanks to the return of old goat paths to axes with European standards; with Shkodra reborn, thanks to the return of hope and the return of tourism as a source of economy that had dried up since the 1930s; with Lezha, Berat, Korça, Pogradec, Gjirokastra, Përmet, Tepelena, Kolonjë, and so on, turned into reborn cities and villages around them, where people from Albania and the whole world come and open to welcome them, door after door, and where the numbers of tourists have reached figures that were unimaginable when this decade began; with the Vlora River valley, turned into a panoramic axis of another Albania, where new axes, highways, roads, tunnels opened in the north and south, with European standards and an unstoppable pace over these years, have given this Albania not just better infrastructure, but the renewable energy of a country on the rise.
All this transformation, which continues and will continue without stopping, with open construction sites and new projects, towards Albania 2030 in the European Union, was not brought about by time as some say, nor by aliens or gangs as some other ghosts shout, but by our governing force, your trust in us and our shared trust in Albania, the untiring work of thousands and thousands of people, of the ministry, state agencies and private companies, the great effort on many fronts of the battle for a European Albania, where the shortcomings, weaknesses, mistakes or even the slips or sins of some within us, cannot in any way reduce the historical dimension of such a transformation.
This is a different Albania, also thanks to the transformation of digital infrastructure from a handful of internet kiosks to a highly mature governance pillar, as assessed by the most prestigious international organizations in the field.
An Albania that has climbed 54 places in the last three years, ranking 14th out of 197 countries in the world for digital governance and making a real-time public services platform available to citizens, free of charge, from every corner of the globe.
E-Albania has saved Albanians 620 million euros and 7,500 years of queueing at the counters, or in other words, a queue as long as 25,000 rotations around the earth.
This is another Albania, which, after the cyber terrorist attack on this very modern digital infrastructure, erected one of the strongest cyber defense walls in Europe, where to date all the continuous attacks that have come and continue to come have failed and no one talks about them.
Another Albania, served in these years of transformation by the knowledge and dedication of the AKSHI and AKCESK teams, where talented girls and boys have increased year after year the ability of this state to serve the people and the country, making Albania a success story internationally.
This is another Albania, emerging from the chronic darkness of power outages, thanks to vision, projects and persistent work supported by continuous investments, which have transformed the entire landscape of the sector, increasing production capacities, diversifying renewable energy sources, reducing prices for household consumers, and climbing year after year towards the peak of energy sovereignty, which we will reach within this mandate to no longer spend a single penny on importing energy from abroad.
This other Albania has no connection to the Albania of the beginning of this decade, when we were the neglected and stigmatized of Europe.
This year closes for Albania, not only with membership negotiations open in every chapter, but also with Albania’s rise to the position of the so-called front-runner, the forerunner, of the Western Balkans’ integration process into the European Union.
This exemplary, fantastic result for the name of our country and for the dignity of our nation was not brought about by time, but by the dedication of the national negotiation team and the knowledge, work, and perseverance of more than 1,000 public patriots in the ministries and independent institutions of the Albanian state.
The last decade has been for Albania and Albanians, a time of new Albanian speed, a great effort to gain lost time of a tough transition of clashes with the walls of backwardness, a national project of transformative reforms to pave the way for our truth as a European people, who deserve to sit at the common European table.
Today is not the time for one of those long speeches of mine. This is the moment for me to assure you that no one can turn back the new era of Albania and that the best is ahead for Albania and Albanians; to guarantee you that the coming year and those after it will bring even more fruit than the transformative work of this decade has brought so far; and to wish you joy, wherever you are, with whoever you are close to, and health and prosperity in the year that is entering the door.
Happy!
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