The French government awards with the highest title "Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor" Albanian Prime Edi Rama.
A surprising and unusual decoration for the French protocol, as comes in recognition of the Albanian Prime role in maintaining peace in the Balkans, the strengthening of economic and cultural Franco-Albanian relations.
Rama was also is surprised by this award by French president Hollande.
Was the French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneueve who gavee the medal to Albanian prime minister.
Bernard Cazeneueve: You're a great friend of France. Convinced of the necessity of strengthening our bilateral relations, you have always supported economic and cultural projects that have contributed to this approach. I know that they are already numerous, starting with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, this major infrastructure project, whose implementation was entrusted last year to a French enterprise. But France is grateful to you for the active role you play in favor of peace and cooperation in the Balkans. You are the first head of the Albanian Government to have committed, with courage, your place on the road to reconciliation with Serbia; and you have come in agreement with your Serbian counterpart, to set up a Regional Youth Office that brings together six Western Balkan countries.
Prime Minister Edi Rama thanked the French president for the special assessment.
Edi Rama: I'm recovering, because I did not expect such a thing. Of course it is more than welcome. Thank you with all my heart, and also Mr. President. I do not know if I deserve, but it is undoubtedly a tremendous honor for someone who arrived in France as an artist who had never thought that one day would arrive in the salons of the French politicians and prominent people. And receiving this medal is really a dream. A dream, in fact, still not seen.
Edi Rama is the first Albanian Prime Minister who is honored with this decoration from the 30s and the only one awarded outside the conditions of reciprocity, at the initiative of the French President himself./Oculus News