Abu Dhabi, Prime Minister Rama on a panel at the 2026 Sustainability Week Summit
Prime Minister Rama, who is in the United Arab Emirates as part of his participation in Sustainability Week 2026, organized under the special patronage of President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was today part of the panel “Energy Corridors for a Sustainable Future.”
Prime Minister Rama highlighted the major investments of the last decade in solar and wind energy, with the aim that by the end of 2028 Albania will achieve full energy sovereignty and will no longer need imports.
The Prime Minister also underlined the importance of strategic cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and Italy, describing this partnership as a visionary model that aims not only at the region’s energy security, but also at exporting green energy to the European Union through major interconnection projects.
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-What a fantastic session. Glad to see that the ADSW hall Is full. It’s extraordinary what’s happening in Central Europe when it comes to the energy transition. But I’m going to save it for the conversation because we must be super focused in our 15-minute window. Let’s welcome His Excellency Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania.
-Nice to see you, Edi.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Not Edi Rami but Edi Rama.
-I’m off to a fantastic start with the two of you.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You are Greek, right?
-I am Greek.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: That’s why you misspelled us.. I know this because we are neighbors. So, we know you very well.
-It’s good to have you both. We must be very focused because we have about 14 minutes to get into this. So, I’m going to ask for super focus. I had the pleasure to do a virtual session with you from Germany last year and you were excellent. So, I want to start with. Nearly all your electricity now comes from renewable energy and you’re fortunate enough to have the natural resources of hydropower. How is Albania, which most people don’t think of in the renewable energy space, building the foundations because you have a strategic partnership with the UAE and Italy and your good self to export some of your renewable power into the European Union and how that in fact enhances relations with the EU for the future.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: So, in a way we are fortunate. You said it. Because we have hydro and we are 100% renewable. We don’t have fossil fuel energy. So, in this we are at the highest level of the ranking of this new world. But don’t forget that hydro means we depend on the humor of Allah. So, when Allah smiles a lot and doesn’t cry, then rain is missing, then we must go to importation and then it becomes heavy.
So, what we have done in this last decade is to invest a lot in solar and wind and to create a portfolio of balanced sources in a way that we will not need to go to import and be fully sovereign by having 100% green energy. And so, our plan is going well and we believe that the end of 2028 will be fully sovereign and will not buy any more energy abroad.
In the meantime, as you said, we have this Strategic cooperation. And I want to say that this is thanks to this country and to its great and gracious leader that has a vision of humanity that goes beyond borders.
And that, as we saw also during the Zayed Awards, is thinking about serving humanity and touching the life of 400 million people outside of your own country is something that even the United Nations as a whole cannot pretend to have done.
So, we have started this thing and the ambition, thanks also to our, let’s say, mentor, who is the guy who made yesterday one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. His name is Dr. Sultan Jaber. I don’t know if you know him.
-Oh, really? I’m not sure who he is.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: You should. Yeah, but as a Greek you should know him better because you always…..
-I don’t know how much more I can know him better, Mr. Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: because you always underestimate people. You think that you have the monopoly of philosophy. You are inheritance of Plato and Aristotle, but you are not.
To finish because I don’t want to eat the time of this great country Montenegro. Montenegro is the greatest country and the biggest country in our region, and they have 50 million citizens. So, we are small country. Serbia is a bit bigger, but Montenegro is the one. Sorry, but we’ll leave him as sweet at the end. Our ambition is together with UAE and Italy to have this trilateral cooperation create a Baselot in Albania.
Dr. Sultan, God bless him, is aiming 3 giga and through the cable with Italy to serve Europe with green energy. And of course, together with our Arab friends to make money to sell to Europe.
-Yeah, it’s incredible as a billion-dollar project to get that done.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It’s more than a billion.
-A billion investment. With the three of those projects.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: It’s more than a billion. You count like Greek. When you talk about your money, you put three zeros more, okay? When you talk about the others money, you take three zeros. So, this is what you do. That’s why EU loves you so much.
What’s the right figure, Mr. Rama?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: The right figure? I’m not going to tell you because I didn’t get the mandate from Dr. Sultani’s. He doesn’t want to scare the Italians because they are always. They always have problems with their budget.
-Thanks for the great introduction. This trans Balkan quarter is quite sizable, and it creates a very strong Position the Prime Minister. I’ll come back on this idea of the EU strategy and what it does in terms of Euro relations with the European Union overall.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: I told you they are not scared of competition. They are 500,000 and they want to beat 450 million people.
-You’ve gathered more than your fair share of foreign direct investment. There’s a very large UAE investment in Durres Port which has done extremely well.
What are your thoughts on data centers? And I’ll get the final comments from your colleague here on your preparation for AI adoption in your country. The educational base with the engineering prowess that you already have. Are you ready to scale AI where it makes a difference domestically? Please.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: We have started from a bit the other way around by trying to make the best out of the technology of problems we inherited in terms of a well serving administration. So, digital technology allowed us to change completely the way the administration works vis a vis to people.
And we have for some years now 95% of our services are online. So we have shut down all the front offices in the country. So, you don’t have an office to go, no queues, no time lost. You get the service online, being in Albania, being outside.
And in the meantime, we are using the AI for all this process of transfer of the European Union legislation in our body of law, because it’s an invasion in the sense that to get into the European Union you need to adopt every law and every regulation same.
So, for the countries there has always been a big, big volume of work. Translators, lawyers, drafters, correctors. While with our AI. We are doing it in a very fast, very accurate. And we have also an AI minister, not minister for AI, but an AI minister. We have a Dr. Sultan, but it’s woman and it’s, it’s AI.
A virtual assistant minister. Good. And what’s that experience like?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: She works for the services, and she works for this transfer of the EU body of law. And she also is working for something that we believe will be really a cutting-edge thing, AI public procurement. To take people out of the process and have procurements managed by AI — so far, so good.
-I think you should share that story more often, because it’s quite radical how you’ve done it, and it’s clearly making a difference. We’re a little tight on time.
-I was inspired by a professor who led Montenegro some years ago. We were at a dinner with friends, and he had made a rise in pensions that shocked the IMF, the WBF, basically all the major institutions. We were concerned, and we asked him how he managed to do it. He simply said, like Nike: “Just do it.”
-You do realize we’re out of time?
You heard about their secret plan, right? No? Well, in case — God forbid — the EU were to fail, the new Brussels would be Podgorica. That’s why. And he’s ready. That’s also why he’s so kind. Imagine, 450 million people being led from Podgorica. You heard it here first.
Anyway, great to see you. Thank you for your friendly back-and-forth. As always, it’s a real pleasure. Thank you very, very much.