Prime Minister Robert Abela addressed a summit in Albania, welcoming an agreement to reduce roaming tariffs between Wester Balkan states and the EU nations starting in October 2023.

EU and Western Balkans leaders worked to strengthen their partnership at a summit Tuesday in Albania's capital, Tirana, where they covered topics that included migration, cybersecurity and diplomatic ties as well as the war in Ukraine.

Abela welcomed that the EU is allocating a billion euros to address the energy crisis and help in the change to the clean use of energy in the Balkan region.

He said that this strategy of supporting and mitigating the impact of the situation has long been adopted in Malta so that families and busnesses were able to continue benegitting from stable energy and fuel prices.

The Prime Minister said that this government's policy led to economic stability and social stability in the country.

On the topic of energy, Abela spoke of other actions the EU took to address the impacts of the was in Ukraine, including the work in favour of the security of food supply and the agreement on a mechanism for the joint purchase of gas, and a strategy to reduce the impact of the increase in the prices of gas and energy, which was reached in European Council meeting that convened in Brussels last October.

Abela said that Balkan countries are seeing their future as partners in the European Union, and that Malta is backing this in the spirit of strong cooperation in favour of stability and prosperity on a regional basis, from which today's and tomorrow's generations will benefit.

He spoke of the work on rule of law reforms that need to be done through more cooperation between the EU and the western Balkan region.