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| Kostas Karamanlis and Belinda Balluku in Athens, JAnuary 13, 2022 |
Albania and Greece will jointly implement projects for energy exchange, the creation of energy storage batteries but also the construction of the blue corridor and the railway line that will start from Tirana to Pogradec and further to the Greek city of Kastoria.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku paid a visit to Athens where she met with the Minister of Energy and Environment, Costas Skrekas, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Karamanlis, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Costas Fragogiannis. In these meetings were discussed important projects for the power line between the two countries but also the railway line.
"Albania and Greece are closely connected through a modern interconnection line, which can be used to store energy in both our countries or to create long-term sales contracts which will have a much better price than that of the market. We also discussed the technical assistance we can receive from the Greek Ministry of Energy and Environment regarding the issue of battery creation, energy storage, which is one of the most important issues and the most progressive initiatives that the European Union is pushing forward in these moments", said the minister.
In the meeting with Costas Karamanlis, the focus was on the two infrastructure projects that connect the two countries, the Blue Corridor and the railway line that will pass from Pogradec to the exit of Jeropigia in Greece. There will also be a memorandum of cooperation for this project.
"In the coming days, we will sign a memorandum of cooperation and understanding regarding a joint project, a project which connects our two countries by rail. The railway to be built from Pogradec to the exit of Jeropigia in terms of Greek land connecting it with the city of Kastoria. We also talked about the big inter-European project of the Blue Corridor, which the Albanian Government launched in March 2020, but due to the pandemic it was postponed and now is the right time for us to start this project and once again from the first, but it is also the moment when the Greek state is starting the part which will connect the Ionian highway, the one at the exit point in Ioannina with the border point of Kakavija", said Balluku.