The Conference of Albanian Ambassadors took place in the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 12th – 15th. This event gathered the heads of diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Albania abroad.
 
This Conference serves as a platform for exchange of information and ideas as well as raises awareness on some important issues related to the Albanian foreign policy, regional developments and international arena.
 
Members of the government, representatives of civil society, academics from the Albanian and international arena are invited to share views with diplomats aiming at exchanging opinions and ideas on current developments of international relations.
 
The Guest of Honour of this conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic, Paolo Gentiloni, addressing the diplomatic corps, focused on the latest developments in the continent, importance of the strategic relations between our two countries and special attention that Italy pays to the region.
 
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati in his speech dwelt on MFA activities in the recent years as well as the developments, fundamental principles and objectives of the Albanian foreign policy. In addition, Minister Bushati addressed issues of improvement of foreign service infrastructure, high technology and human resources. Dwelling on the wide scope of services which MFA offers to the Albanian citizens, he highlighted that: “investing in the high technology, respectively digitalization of consular services and creation of supportive applications such as the consular App which will be launched in the upcoming autumn, constitute the best response to abuses and apathy”.
 
Minister Bushati also dwelt on the improvement of legal framework in the foreign service underlining that “the new legal package has started to address the very challenges the foreign service staff are facing:
 
·         to bring to an end the overthrown pyramid system of diplomatic ranks;   
·         to re-establish professionalism at the centre of human resources policies;
·         to establish merit based values at the fundament of the foreign service through competitive entrance procedures and other tests of promotion to higher ranks.
·         to offer the Ambassador’s position to the talented people putting an end to partisan quotas’ practice”.
 
In the margins of this Conference, the Tirana Initiative was launched as an instrument to support the monitoring of Berlin Process in view of the European integration of the country. Tirana Initiative announced today as a follow-up of the three summits Berlin-Vienna-Paris and in the preparation of the upcoming summit in Rome would serve as a platform:
 
·         to monitor the progress of Berlin Process as catalyst of the integration process;
·         to enrich the agenda of regional cooperation including security and rule of law issues;
·         to facilitate coordination with civil society, business community and academic staff as well;
·         to transform the current interdependence of the Adriatic Europe with the EU into a process where democratization is successfully concluded and in which the EU can capitalize its long-term investment”.