“Do not let the iron that is in you rust.

Make them respect you instead of pity”

This statement of our saint, Mother Teresa, comes to mind, as the Donors Conference was held in Brussels, where Albania’s call for help was answered responded so strongly and so generously, the entire international community. An answer that showed solidarity, but also respect and trust, that their help would not be wasted.

We have talked at length about the damage caused by the earthquake in these last months and today, I would no longer like to talk about the consequences, but about the rebuilding.

A road that started, still not waiting for the calculation of damage balances.

Beyond the immediate needs for a shelter, school and health center, let’s not forget that there is another unchanging constant in the lives of Albanians, which makes them feel proud: heritage couture.

The earthquake would also hit this part of the Albanian national identity, proof of our European belonging.

Over 50 material heritage objects were damaged in the area affected by the earthquake. They are monuments of primary importance, closely related to our national symbols, such as castles, cult objects, characteristic dwellings and museums…

But thanks to the immediate response, the phases of emergency interventions have ended, to pave the way for an equally important process and with an even longer-lasting vision, which it is not just the reconstruction, but also the revitalization of these monuments.

A process, supported by the European Union through the Program of 40 million euros, EU4Culture, which I can say with full conviction would not have been like this, in the absence of a clear intervention plan, conceived in investment packages, that will not focus only on wall repairs, but on a detailed resettlement operation.

Among the damaged objects, we included in the priority list 35 of them, among which 7 castles, 9 museums, 9 institutional buildings and archives, 10 cult objects and residences .

I brought you some figures and objects to show that this program aims to go beyond the rebuilding of 2-3 symbolic monuments, but directly affects the lives of Albanians.

In the vision of the Albanian Government, culture and cultural heritage are not secondary issues, but part of the goal for a European Albania, which deserves all the attention and proper investment, to bring it out of the levels of inferiority and to turn it into a solid pillar, in the spiritual fulfillment of Albanians, but also in cultural, competitive tourism in the region.

We like to call it “the economy of beauty”, because cultural heritage should not be just a decoration, which we often forget or take for granted , but to be put at the service of local communities;

Forts will be rebuilt, but archives will also be accessed to digitize the assets stored in them, saving them from rodents of time and putting them at the service of users;

Bridges will be reinforced, but museums will also be redesigned, where tradition will speak to new generations through technology, audio guides multilingual and adapted for the little ones;

Cultural objects will be restored, but also the library, where there will not be just bookshelves, but also restoration laboratories, corners dedicated to children, who will we teach them not only to keep up with the times, but to protect themselves with the feeling of the beauty of being Albanian, in this race where everyone wants to be citizens of the whole world;

Life will be restored in cultural monument apartments, where the residents tend to run away and abandon them, returning to them the desire to stay invested in the houses of the first; To put down roots in their own country and not see it as a station from which they must flee.

This agreement that will be signed today is a turning point for the future of cultural heritage in Albania. So let me thank all the countries of the European Union that contributed to it.

Today is the day of celebrating a quality beyond humanity, which is solidarity.

An unprecedented, touching solidarity and readiness, which was not limited to comforting messages, but with concrete forces on the ground, expertise in estimating damages and drawing up reconstruction projects,that it could not have happened so quickly and so efficiently, if we had not had the support of the European Union, this big family, to which we have always belonged and which I firmly believe that apart from the feeling of humanity, which is at the foundation of European culture, it was close to us for another reason: Belief in the right direction, which the Albanian Government is following, to gain the lost time, due to delays historical and past mistakes.

And let me close again with two words of the holy Mother Teresa:

“Yesterday is gone.

Tomorrow has not yet come.

We only have today.

Let’s get started!”