Tirana

TIRANA - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic attended an informal meeting of Western Balkan leaders in Tirana on Monday.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Brnabic said initiatives as part of Open Balkan and a Berlin Process summit to be hosted by Albania had been discussed at the meeting.

The decision came as a measure to prevent the migration of medical students from the public university, who for years have left to work in Europe, especially Germany, soon after getting their degrees.

The plan has been public for some months, but was only passed on Wednesday and Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered the decision himself, wanting to send a "message", while presenting it.

The message from Athens to Tirana in Greek Ambassador Konstantina Kamitsi's statements to the Albanian press by was clear: The ongoing detainment of the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare in Albania will be a thorn in the side of Greek-Albanian relations for some time to come.

The Albanian Prime Minister said today that if Serbia does not soon release the three recently arrested Kosovo policemen, it will mean a return to the cooling of relations between Tirana and Belgrade.

The extension of the detention of Fredi Beleri, the recently elected ethnic Greece mayor of Himare in Albania, "is contrary to the common sense of justice and the European concept of the rule of law," the Greek Foreign Ministry underlined in a statement on Monday.

A temporary lull in Greek-Albanian diplomatic tensions has arisen ahead of the Greek elections after interventions from Washington, Berlin and Brussels.

Diplomatic tensions rose between Athens and Tirana after the arrest and imprisonment of the newly elected ethnic Greek mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, just two days before local elections in the neighboring country.

Fred Beleri, the Greek minority candidate in the Himara region of southern Albania, has responded to news of his victory in the local elections held on Sunday. Despite his current detention by Albanian authorities on charges of vote-buying, Beleri expressed a commitment to equality and unity.

Fredi Beleri, the candidate representing the Greek minority, emerged victorious over his opponent Jorgo Goro, who had the backing of the Edi Rama government, in the race for the mayor of Himara in Albania's local elections.

The official results were announced Monday after an earlier interruption in the vote counting process.

A crisis in relations between Athens and Tirana has been sparked by the arrest of the candidate for mayor of Himare, Greek expatriate Dionysis-Fredi Beleri, two days before the municipal elections in the neighboring country.

Albania's Tourism and Environment Minister Mirela Kumbaro announced on Monday that the River Vjosa, its banks and the land around it are now a national park with a size of 12,727 hectares.

"We have today the final decision to declare the River Vjosa, the last wild river in Europe, a national park," Kumbaro said.