The Albanian Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku received in an official visit in Tirana the Minister of Energy and Environment of Greece, Kostas Skrekas.

During the joint press statement, Minister Balluku announced that within 2030 the new transmission line between Albania and Greece will be operational.

“One of the most important issues we discussed was the new interconnection line between our countries, for which the two power operators have started work after the meeting we had in January this year in Athens. This work has advanced and we expect to close the study within this year. From the information, we aim that within 2030 the new transmission line between Albania and Greece will be operational,” declared Balluku.

The Minister stressed that another important issue discussed was the establishment of the Albanian Energy Exchange.

"We are cooperating closely with a Greek consortium and the final date for the launch of operations is November 23 this year, fulfilling another condition for the liberalization of the Albanian power market as required by the EU," said Balluku.

"We have decided to invest in gasification in the next 10 years, we have discussed and exchanged our experiences regarding the plans we have creating the navigable port in Vlora, or the construction of the new Ionian-Adriatic gas line, where a part of it is foreseen to be erected through the gasification project of the Vlora terminal, thus building a pipeline about 30 km that connects the terminal with the exit point of Fier,” Balluku said.

According to Balluku, the meeting discussed the development that the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium will have in the future and the investment opportunities in this project or the gas pipeline capacities that Albania will have in the future.

While the Greek minister Skrekas stated that the cooperation between Albania and Greece is aimed at increasing the competition in terms of electricity production. He said that a memorandum will be signed soon.

"We are in Albania in a very critical period. Unfortunately, Russia's sudden attack on Ukraine, which has caused thousands of deaths, has had very serious consequences for Europe's energy sector, including Greece and Albania. We see the prices of energy and liquefied gas that have risen and threaten all households today. We even see a problem in the way of supply, because if this war continues it could cause interruption of the flow of liquefied gas from Russia to Europe and the Balkans, with consequences for us all,” said the Greek minister.

Therefore, he stressed that this visit is very important, because it aims to deepen Albania-Greece energy cooperation.

Skrekas said that the Greek side will materialize the functionality of the new electricity market in Albania, which will enable Albania to soon integrate into the European energy market.

"We also proposed Albania's participation in the regional security center, based in Thessaloniki, where the shareholders are Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, now we want Albania to participate despite not being part of the EU," said the Greek minister.

According to him, it was also discussed about the realization of a memorandum between the two countries by the end of the year and to move on to an improvement of the power lines.