I was willing to sit down and talk before the adoption of the fifth set of economic measures and I’m still willing to meet with hospitality sector representatives to find common ground, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi said ahead of a protest of the owners of venues that host weddings and other celebrations scheduled for Wednesday.

“We’ve all been affected by the crisis, either financially or health-wise, but once it’s over we’ll have to get together and see how to recover. That’s why I’m willing to sit down and talk,” Bytyqi told a press conference on presenting the new national infrastructure geo portal.

He stressed that the proposed set of economic measures identifies the hospitality industry as one of the sectors most affected by the crisis.

“The hospitality sector is included in all measures, but I can’t go against recommendations issued by the Commission for Infectious Diseases. We all have to do our jobs in a professional manner and trust the Commission when it says that it’s still not safe to ease restrictions,” Bytyqi underlined.

The Deputy PM noted that different measures apply to venues that host weddings and other celebrations.

“The new set of measures gives these businesses the opportunity to get a significantly larger amount of non-refundable assistance once they start working, due to the fact that they’ve been closed for a year. That’s why we should sit down and talk,” he said.