Journalist: Good evening, welcome to NOW, welcome to EuroNews Albania. Today I have the pleasure of interviewing the Ambassador of the EU Delegation in Albania, Mrs. Christine Hohmann, and this is her first interview on television. Mrs. Ambassador, welcome to NOW and thank you very much for choosing my show and above all EuroNews Albania television to give this interview. It's really a pleasure.

Ambassador: It is a great pleasure to be here and thank you for having me!

Journalist: Thank you. Mrs. Hohmann, since August you are the Ambassador of the EU Delegation in Tirana. How do you feel in Albania, what is it like to work here? How did you find our country, your first impressions?

Ambassador: I have to admit this was the very first time I actually came to Albania. I had never been to the country before. So this is a discovery, is like an adventure, but it's also a new job and I find it in a very exciting time, so I can discover the country with all its beauties, but I also have politically a super exciting job at the moment, because we're in the EU accession process.

Journalist: True. You said that Albania is a discovery, it’s an adventure. Albania is a small country but with dynamic events. There are many events; I believe you have followed them during all these months that you have been here. There are arrests of corrupt officials for money laundering, taking bribes, etc. What is the perception of a diplomat when she sees all these events for a country like ours? Are they normal events for a country in transition, are they events that show that we are a country with a high level of corruption or that the law enforcement bodies are working, are producing results? How did you see this?

Ambassador: I think one of the points we can see is that this is a country in transition, as you just mentioned, is a country that is actually going through tremendous changes, and has gone through massive changes in the last thirty years. I happen to see a documentary of the early 90s of what Tirana looked like, I don’t recognize it, and I cannot really see that these are the same cities. So if you also look at the whole changes that have taken place here in the country, it is a tremendous process. And unfortunately, like everywhere, these transition processes are not straightforward lines, they have ups and downs, but this is why we are also here, why we are engaged, because we actually want a stable, fully democratic and successful Albania. This is why we are working with everybody here in the country and it’s an effort, it’s a joint effort and we have to do it together to solve one problem after the other.

Journalist: As you also said, Albania received the status of candidate country in July last year. Six months after, the first Intergovernmental Conference between Albania and the EU, this great event, but delayed, let's admit it, has increased expectations that we are close to EU membership. What has Albania done in these six months from a technical point of view, let's say, initially?

Ambassador: This is the first phase of the whole accession process. There are several phases, just called the screening, which you can imagine like taking a CT scan of all of Albania. This gives us the whole situation compared to what the EU standards and norms are. What we call the acquis is the whole legal body and this is what is happening at the moment, we have the state of play and out of that come the decision of the EU Member States to literally start sitting at the table and opening actually the first cluster, which is the negotiations. So, in the screening we finish cluster one, we are in cluster too now.

Journalist: As you mentioned, there are 35 chapters grouped into clusters. The word negotiation is often used. Is Albania really negotiating or it is just doing its homework?

Ambassador: I think that if you take negotiation in the tighter sense of the word, no, we are not negotiating, because we are talking about the EU standards, norms and legal structure of the EU which is a given, and that has to be adapted. Albania has to fulfil all of that and it also has to become a reality here in Albania, so EU norms, legislation and standards. But, in relation to some technical areas, what you do negotiate is the so-called transition period before you have to fulfil it, particularly in very challenging areas, where it will take longer time. So this is a small part of the negotiations, but the rest is an intensive dialogue and exchange which will take a couple of years.

Journalist: Ok, approximately two years. The various countries that joined the EU after 2004, took at least 9-10 years from the opening of negotiations to membership. Of course, Montenegro and Serbia will need more time. No one has dared to mention a timeline, but let's say, what can we say to a 30-year-old young, when the final moment will come – the membership? How much longer will it take?

Ambassador: I think there is a good reason why no one has dared to give a timeline. We would need more than one crystal ball to say this, because there are so many factors that actually have an impact on the duration. What is the core principle, the speed of how quickly a country can proceed on the accession path depends on the acceding country, so how continuously reforms are being implemented in all areas, how broad is the process, how fast is the process and it has an impact on how far we can proceed in the process itself. And therefore, I cannot predict how this is going to run. As we can see, in the past, when I was serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we all thought Montenegro would join in the next couple of years, but then political developments can actually also be a sort of a blockage in the whole accession process, so it is a very individual process and therefore there is no standard rule. What it takes is political commitment and engagement to actually drive the reforms forward.

Journalist: Regarding Albania and its pace in fulfilling its tasks, what do you think, how is it going, is it at a fast pace or not?

Ambassador: At the moment what we see, as we have also said in what we call the Progress Report in October, there is a continuous pace of reforms that are geared towards acceding towards EU standards and norms. So this is happening. It is up to the government to define its level of ambition, so how much it wants to be involved. I would also like to point out that this is of course something that is not just about passing legislation, but what you need is political support, but it is also about the implementation in the country, because these structures, these rules, these standards have to become a living reality here in the country. So it is much more than just going to the parliament with the legislation. And this is what the people want to feel, that something is happening.

Journalist: So it has to do with implementation as well as with the adoption of specific laws? It’s been 32 years since the slogan of the students when the system changed, i.e. when the dictatorial system fell: “We want Albania like all of Europe”. Although you did not mention a timeline, in the most fortunate case Albania will need ten years, which is an era, until membership. Where do you think Albania went wrong, if it did, and what do you think the European Union could have done more for our country to progress more in this process, all these years?

Ambassador: I think the past is the past. We are working from now. As I mentioned earlier, I saw this documentary to see how far Albania has come from 30 years ago. It is a tremendous transformation, but also the reforms that have to be related with the EU accession process will be another transformative process, so there will be a lot of changes. This also needs to be accompanied by involving the population, by involving the business community, so that is actually carried away beyond the political powers in the country, but also by the population itself. So this is a comprehensive process and what we need to do is to focus now on what is ahead and how are we going to achieve this. This is where the emphasis should be now.

Journalist: The year 2022 ended with an important event for the country, which was the Summit in Tirana of the countries of the European Union and the Western Balkans. The perspective of the membership of the Western Balkans in the EU has been stated since June 2003, 20 years ago, that is, at the Thessaloniki Summit. What, in your opinion, is the specific of this summit that was held in Tirana?

Ambassador: I think what was really the big success here is to get the attention on Tirana. Tirana was the capital of Europe that day. You have the leaders of all the European Member States coming here, and for some it was the first time coming here to actually put a reality to what they may hear or read about the country. So, this was a huge success for Albania and for the Western Balkans countries, because for the first time the EU Member States took the decision not to hold these councils in Brussels, which according to the Lisbon Treaty would be the case. So it's a political signal too: we hear you, we are here for you. This is the first and was also a way to give a reality to what are perhaps perceptions or stereotypes about the region, about the countries, to bring people here to experience actually the real Albania, and I think that is important.

Journalist: As you yourself mentioned, the screening of the chapters is, so to speak, a diagnosis of the organizational and institutional capacities of Albania. In which chapter do you think Albania will need more effort, in which field?

Ambassador: It is hard to say because we are in the middle of the process, actually. We have just, as I said, finished cluster one. We have six clusters actually. We started number two, so there is still a lot of work to be done. There are some areas, if you look for instance, in the economic field, where labour safety standards, product standards, etc., have to be fulfilled eventually, and this will cause a huge transformation and changes, but look also into agriculture, where you use the fertilizers, etc. We are literally talking about over hundreds of thousands of pages of rules and standards that need to be implemented. So there are areas which are really competitive in Europe and areas where competition is not there yet. So, you can see that the scope is wide, but it is the part of doing that at a steady pace, to have these reforms pace, which allows us actually increase the competiveness of Albanian companies, for instance, and to open them to the market.

Journalist: You said that there are areas where Albania competes with Europe and there are other areas where it is not at the same pace as Europe. What are they, if you can single out any areas for us?

Ambassador: Let’s wait for the so-called screening report because I can't speak for each individual sector. They are working on it, but there are a couple of things, the rules of free movement of goods and services, etc., so a long list of things. But I think what is important also, what the screening also shows is that quite a lot of things have already been done. So, the transformation of the country that we talked about from the 90s today has not been in vain, it is actually something that made Albania prepared for the process that is coming now.

Journalist: There was enthusiasm both in Tirana and in Brussels in the years 2016-2017, and then it was said that Albania has made great progress with a difficult chapter, which is Chapter 23 that deals with the justice reform. Today as we speak, does this enthusiasm still continue or have expectations decreased six years after the adoption of the reform?

Ambassador: Our enthusiasm is still there because we see that this whole process is difficult, painful, but it delivers. It was a very brave political decision to do the whole vetting process, to actually clean up the judiciary. This takes political capital to be put in and this is delivering results. And now of course we have had many people who did not make the vetting process, so in the end we have more vacancies in the whole judiciary system, so we need to fill out these vacancies. But the goal is still the same: to build up a sector, a judiciary that is actually competent but is also marked by integrity, because this is how trust and the rule of law happens, by having integrity in the prosecuting service but also with judges. So this is exactly where this is delivering, in our view. What we are working now is on the stabilization of it and what officially speaking, would be track record to prove that actually the new structures that have been been built up are delivering results.

Journalist: You mentioned the vetting process yourself and the fact that prosecutors and judges should be people of integrity. But apart from that, the vetting process has also created many gaps in the system and this has caused people to get justice more slowly, so the cases are delayed. Do you see this as a minus created by the reform, something that perhaps should have been foreseen, so that in parallel with the removal of those without integrity from the system, the rest of the judges were also replaced? So no gap should have been created, and the system would have moved forward.

Ambassador: I do understand that people who are waiting for decisions in court are not satisfied because it takes long, because of the vacancies now, but on the other hand, actually the vetting process has proven to be extremely efficient and has showed that we needed to have this. You know, in the beginning, when it started six years ago, there were rough estimates of how many people, how big the losses would be in the system, and they were around one third, and now we're ending up and we had roughly 60% of people who were in office not passing the vetting, which shows that it was very important to have the vetting, but also of course the challenge for us to fill the vacancies is bigger. So this is now the challenge, to actually produce those integrant new generations of prosecutors and judges to fill the vacancies. So, politically, I think it was a necessary process which has delivered the cleaning up of the sector and is still delivering, but I do understand that people are impatient to get a decision, so this is where we work to fill actually the sector with the relevant people.

Journalist: In Albania we have an expression that justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore, the citizens expect this. However, beyond your enthusiasm about the vetting process and the reform as a whole, what do you think could have been done better, something that you have seen that could have been foreseen from the beginning?

Ambassador: I have to admit that after six months it is difficult to say. I think our job now is to look what is the problem we are facing and how can we actually help to solve. It is usually not really helpful if you dwell in the past, because it prevents you from moving forward. What we have, and what the people of Albania have, is the current issues and problems, so let's see that we deliver quality professional services of integrity to the people and this is our challenge now. So we have to look forward to how we tackle this.

Journalist: After seven years of reform, as far as you have seen, I understand that six months is not enough to do a complete scan of the situation and the problems that have arisen from the reform, but if a neighbouring country would like to follow the same process, would you personally suggest it?

Ambassador: Each country is different and each accession process is different. So, when the vetting process was actually created here for Albania, it was created from scratch. There is no example globally, so we cannot say this is how it is done. Each country has to find its own way how to do these reforms. So this is not a recipe that we can use globally now. I would say, it is an individual process and therefore every country has to say what are the priorities in the sector and how they should be handled. So I would not say this is how we are going to do in any country.

Journalist: There is a new head of the Special Prosecutor's Office, Mr. Altin Dumani, and two days ago you held a meeting focusing on the fight against high-level corruption and organized crime. Can you tell us something more from this meeting and what do you mean when you say high level, because the term high level corruption is often misused?

Ambassador: Corruption is a crime, is doesn’t matter who commits it. And nobody should be outside the judicial system. It doesn’t matter which rank, which position a person holds. If you commit the crime of corruption, then you should stand up for it in court. I think, that’s the point. Every person is equal in front of the law. This is the principle at least in our system; it is the basic principle of justice. So it is of course, the investigative power, this is where we actually cooperate very closely with SPAK, where we support to build investigative capacities to improve the work of SPAK, because it is a new structure that has been built up. And of course, it is also about building, what I said early, this track record. You know, we have had some outstanding cases, very prominent cases, but to make sure this is not one-off. So, it is again looking into the problems because there are problems with corruption, with influence peddling, and not judge whether it is too high of a political figure or not important enough. Corruption is a crime and this is the thing that needs to be eradicated. And this is what we need SPAK and also the judiciary institutions in general, to fight against it.

Journalist: How do you consider SPAK's work so far and what are your expectations for this special structure? And besides the cases examined so far, do you expect it to investigate other corrupt officials who are in the government?

Ambassador: I think this is not my place to say because the judiciary is independent of political influences and also of us. So this is the merit of the prosecutors who work at SPAK to see whether a case merits or not, so I am not going to tell you to investigate this or that. This is not our job. But the point is, they have in the two and a half years they exist, three years, they have made quite an impact, I think. It is a very young institution and now it is about solidifying it and you know NBI is still being built up. So this is where it can be more efficiency and here we exactly expect them to solidify what they have built up, but also then to improve of course the track record.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, you are more careful with your language when you talk about the judiciary, about SPAK, that is, about the justice system as a whole. However, there have been times from the government, from Prime Minister Edi Rama, but also from your colleagues, US Ambassador Yuri Kim, when they have been more direct. Ambassador Kim also spoke about political pressures on SPAK and justice institutions and intimidation of judges. Have you seen this in your work? Have you felt that there is still an attempt from politics to intimidate?

Ambassador: This is exactly why I said early on that there are two principles that actually are important for the justice sector, which is free of influence peddling and everyone is the same in front of the law. These are the core principles that we apply ourselves as well. So this is something that we hope would become a reality in the country and that it is clear that the judiciary works on the basis of the law and that's it.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, according to Transparency International, Albania ranks last in terms of the corruption perception index. In conversations with Albanian officials, what do they say to you when you raise this as a concern?

Ambassador: There is this point of corruption being a phenomenon which is... you know you can use the term it takes two to tango. So it takes two persons to commit corruption, it takes one on one side to demand but it takes also the other one to actually pay. How can we break this cycle? This is a joint effort, this not something that you can only say: by law, this is illegal, but it is also a change of the day to day routine, it is the reality that needs to change about this. Both sides should say no, which is on one side whoever asks to be corrupted not to do this anymore, but it also takes people who say, no, I am not paying for it, because I am entitled to that. Is that easy? No, it is not, and it takes years to actually break this, but unless we start at some point, we are not going to get there. I think that’s the most important for me.

Journalist: This seems like a tough battle, Mrs. Ambassador.

Ambassador: It is one, it’s a daily one.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, regarding corrupt officials and not only, the United States of America, but also Great Britain seems to be in unison for sanctions against officials or former officials for corruption and more. Will there be sanctions from the European Union on officials and former officials, to follow the same line that the USA and Britain are following?

Ambassador: I have not seen any initiative in parallel with this in the European Union, it is a decision by the 27 EU Member States, but I have not seen it so far.

Journalist: So it would take the approval of 27 Member States to do something like that?

Ambassador: Yes, it would have to be.

Journalist: And would it be difficult to find a consensus among 27 states?

Ambassador: No, I haven’t seen any proposal, actually. A proposal is needed before you go into any discussions.

Journalist: The European Union, as a rule, does not work with megaphone diplomacy, and when it uses public articulation, it means that there is a great concern. I am asking you about the golden passports. The Annual Report of the European Commission has clearly expressed its concern and voices from the Commission have publicly spoken against this initiative. The latest Visa Suspension Mechanism report also expresses this concern. However, the Albanian government has not given any signal that it will withdraw from this initiative that it has talked about. What is the leverage of the EU in this issue?

Ambassador: I think in the first issue, which is the golden passports scheme, the European Commission has been very clear saying that it violates the EU acquis. As I mentioned earlier, what the accession process is, is about fulfilling the EU acquis. So if you violate it, you are not aligned with the EU policy. If you strive to become a member of the European Union you have to fulfil the EU acquis. The Commission has been very clear about this and, as you mentioned, we also put this in the Progress Report in autumn last year. Regarding the visa alignment scheme, you know that there have been some changes, but there is still a way to go and as well we expect the countries that want to accede to the European Union to apply the EU visa policy and not to run a different one.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, you said about the golden passports, the EU acquis should not be violated, which they do. If the Albanian government were to advance with the golden passports would this create an impasse with the EU as concerns accession? If it were to advance, unilaterally, with no consultations?

Ambassador: It is about the political signal you are sending. If you declare that you want to become a member of the European Union, yes, this is not going to happen tomorrow, but you are in a process of actually aligning with the EU acquis, and taking actions that are actually going against this is a political signal you send. What is very important is that Albania will need for this process to progress the support of the 27 EU Member States, because they decide also that Albania has done everything, so we can move on. So this is important, we were talking about the technical process, the screening and then the clusters, but the opening is decided by the EU Member States. If you send conflicting political signals they could get confused about your commitment.

Journalist: What is the main concern that the European Union has about the golden passports? What is the risk that can threaten not only our country but also the region because of these golden passports?

Ambassador: It has been made very become clear that it is a security concern linked to that and particularly with regard to the current geopolitical situation and actually it has been emphasized, because there has been a strong use of that system in quite a number of Member States that have abandoned it. You know that the European Commission pulled Malta into the European Court of Justice as the last country in the EU that does have such a scheme, everybody else has abandoned it.

Journalist: So, if Albania continues, would it also go to court?

Ambassador: Only as a member of the EU.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, another concern of the European Union, but also of the United States, is the fiscal amnesty, another initiative that the government is trying to approve. The political majority seems determined to do it. The standard answer they give is that they are negotiating with our partners and that they are working with EU experts on this. Can you explain to us what the Commission's red lines are on this issue, that is, what are the points you agree with and the points you disagree with, which are red lines for you. What is the main concern?

Ambassador: What we have done is that we have actually brought in a number of experts who are much better than myself, for instance. I am not much of a financial expert, but they came in and they provided quite a vast amount of advice for the Albanian government to actually get in the re-drafting of a new legislation, of a new version of the legislation. So this is what we are currently waiting for, a new version that takes in the advice given. So at this point in time, I cannot give you where the red lines are, because I don’t know the current state of the draft legislation. We are waiting for that one.

Journalist: Very briefly, what is the main concern? What is your fear, money laundering?

Ambassador: There are a number of issues because it is a complex and comprehensive legislation. You mentioned one of those, but there was also the issue of extraterritoriality, there is the question of the implementation of the whole thing, so it is a huge, legal but also practical challenge out there, but as I said we have given advice and it is now at the point of how it is taken in and how will an edited new version of the draft legislation look up. The experts will look at it again and it is not only the European Commission that will look at it, but it is also MoneyVal that will look at it and also give advice.

Journalist: In a few months, Albania will hold the general local elections, on May 14. The elections are a difficult test for Albania. What are your expectations for these elections?

Ambassador: What I would hope, I mean I am not a voter in this country, but what I would hope is that the candidates that run for a post as a mayor are actually there because they want to work for the citizens of their municipality and their political will is for doing something good for the citizens there. Of course, fair election is the big title. The other point which I think is very important is that citizens are able to use their right to cast a vote without any interference or any pressure. It is my right to vote and I should be free in my decision who I vote for.

Journalist: Do you see that Albanian citizens are free or is it still too early for you to say that, since you have only been here for six months? Are they free or are they influenced by the political power?

Ambassador: I am not a voter, so I would not even be able to testify about this, because I will never be exposed to any pressure or influence, but I think it is the principles that unfortunately, given the ODIHR report from last elections, have to be repeated. I think that is very important.

Journalist: Mrs. Ambassador, the European Union is Albania's biggest donor, and it has supported the country in very difficult moments, such as the earthquake of 2019. At that time, at the Donors' Conference, it was said that there would be a Transparency Academy for funds for reconstruction. Do you have an assessment of the progress of this process in terms of European Union funds?

Ambassador: We are currently doing our own ex-ante and ex-post control of the use of the money, so of course, I think a lot of people in Albania know our biggest reconstruction programs are for earthquake reconstruction, which is EU4Schools and EU4Culture, which can be seen all across the country, to keep the national monuments, but also to rebuild schools either completely or restore them and to improve the facilities for the children. So we are very clear about the use of the funds and where they go, because we control them ourselves.

Journalist: From the continuous monitoring of your investments in Albania, have you found violations, abuses of European Union money?

Ambassador: If there is a suspicion, they are handed to... probably people know already, it is called OLAF, which is the institution in Brussels that looks into suspicious cases. And if there is something they find, the files get over to to the prosecution services of the relevant country, which would be Albania. In my time I have not seen any delivery of envelope to prosecutors.

Journalist: A few days ago, Prime Minister Rama asked for more investments from the EU for the Balkans. Why does the European Union always seem to grant Albania less project funds than other Balkan countries, despite the smaller population, such as Macedonia, Monte Negro, etc.

Ambassador: I would not sign on to that. I mean, Albania is receiving actually annually an average of 100,000 Euros in support. It can be grants but it can also be in projects. So there is quite a lot going on and every Albanian can see that the EU has been here for quite a number of years, not only by-passes and roads have been built, but you can also see it in the agricultural sector, you can also see it in the reconstruction of the Tirana-Durra railway, so it is actually ongoing. And I think Albania is getting what it can be implemented, because one of the points is, yes you can have a lot in the pipeline, but what can be actually implemented and be built, be constructed, be realized in the country. We are working very hard to get as much as possible done here in Albania.

Journalist: But why is the prime minister not satisfied with this, asking for more investments from the EU? Is there still room to give more?

Ambassador: We have for the whole region the so-called Investment Fund for the Western Balkans, which is for bigger infrastructure projects and Albania can submit projects and sometimes some of them are cross-border projects. There are decisions that are taken by a board whether these projects are eligible, so there Albania can submit suggestions.

Journalist: One last question about the projects. The EU helps not only institutions and government, but also business, civil society and the media. What projects do you think are making a difference?

Ambassador: Let's start with the media: to support investigative journalism, to support qualitative journalism is very important, because how can people get through a lot of news that are storming on them, to actually sort them through? So media literacy is a big one. But I already mentioned two of our flagship ones which are: EU4Culture and EU4Schools, where 63 schools have been rebuilt or renovated or newly built from scratch.

Journalist: 63?

Ambassador: Just in the earthquake areas, we are only talking about areas affected by the earthquake in 2019, so this is not across the country. The same with EU4Culture. People in Tirana have seen the scaffold in front of the National Museum, that’s part of the EU4Culture, being rebuilt.

Journalist: And this is a European Union funding?

Ambassador: Yes, this is EU money, this is us doing it. But we will soon, hopefully, keep the fingers crossed, be able to inaugurate the fully restored Venetian Tower in Durrës, which had really huge cracks after the earthquake.

Journalist: A restoration with EU funds too?

Ambassador: Yes, it has been done with European funds, yes.

Journalist: However, immigration remains a major challenge for the country. Although it was Great Britain, a country that has left the Union, that faced more than 13,000 illegal Albanian immigrants, EU Member States themselves have expressed concern about the high number of Albanian asylum seekers. There are more asylum requests coming from Albania than from Ukraine, which is a country at war. Do you look at the fleeing of Albanians with concern, because we said that the European Union helps with money and reforms for Albanians to live here, for the country to become better for living here? How do you see this departure? Is it an indication of problems with governance or a normal phenomenon as the government itself considers it? What are the reasons for this, in your opinion?

Ambassador: It is an issue of concern in many countries, not only Albania, but brain drain is very difficult, because it is actually the leaving of the population that we actually will need for jobs we hope to create here. This is why, to improve the business environment, to be able to increase the investments that come to create jobs that secure that you can make a decent living here in the country and don’t have to go somewhere else, is very important. So this is part of the reform process, the whole transformative process. The second element is about education and exchanges. We are not denying that people go for education and training somewhere, but what we would like to see more is that they are attracted back to Albania, to bring their knowledge back and to actually contribute to building the future of Albania. It takes an overarching effort which goes from politics, goes to the business community, goes to education, and of course we need to build up an economic sector that creates the opportunities that are badly needed.

Journalist: A few days ago, the Minister of Immigration in Great Britain used a term that for us here was interpreted as a strong and somewhat discriminatory term: “Find the Albanian and stop him”. I don't know if you have followed this statement and what is your opinion about it? What do you think of it, was it, as we saw it, a little discriminatory? It was referring only to Albanians, in fact, not to other nationalities going to Britain.

Ambassador: I think it was an extremely unfortunate statement, because it puts into one basket a nationality, which is something that we should never do. Differentiation here is actually the principle that we should follow. The core is, we want to create opportunities here so that less and less people will feel the urge to look for jobs elsewhere. And that is a huge task for all of us. And to put one population just into one basket is not fair.

Journalist: You have served as a diplomat in the West in the USA, in the East in Estonia, in the region in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the European Commission and now also in Albania. What is special about Albania and what contribution do you think it brings to the big European family that currently has 27 members?

Ambassador: I asked to be able to apply for this job, I wanted to come here, because when I was posted in Bosnia-Herzegovina until 2019, I heard a lot about Albania, but I never got the change to travel here. But it was a sort of unknown territory, because I was also ignorant about this country apart for general political information. I wanted to come here because it is a country in a transformation process and that for every diplomat is the best challenge you can have, because we feel that something is happening and perhaps we can also contribute with our little part to this moving ahead and improve the situation for the people in the country. So for me this is one of the core elements. What brings Albania to the EU? Look at this country, it is diverse, it is rich in culture, it is rich also in its presence. I have felt the hospitality across the whole country, but also this pride to be Albanian. I hope that you bring this to the European Union, because we are a diverse, a multicultural union of countries and there is a space that needs to be filled by Albania. Because that’s what you bring to the table.

Journalist: You said that you wanted to come here to Albania, to come as an ambassador. And you said that there is diversity, there are different energies. I am sure that you will not be bored a single day in Albania, because a different event happens every day in Albania.

Ambassador: That makes our life interesting.

Journalist: Mrs. Hohmann, thank you so much for being with me today on NOW. It was really a pleasure and I repeat once again that you chose to give your first interview to EuroNews Albania. Thank you!

Ambassador: Thank you so much for having me!