Albania, Kosovo committed to implementation 13 co-operation agreements

For this deal, Albania remains committed to implementing these agreements, especially for implementing bilateral facilities in customs procedures, and for facilitating procedures for obtaining temporary residence permits.

Albania's Ambassador to Pristina, Kemal Minxhozi, in an interview for Kosovo Press, claims there is a major acceleration of all institutions in Albania and Kosovo for the realisation of the objectives, and decisions made at the November 26th joint meeting in Elbasan.

The various sub-commissions of Albania and Kosovo countries have been in constant connection to see how these agreements can be implemented in the legislative plan as well. The various commissions have been in Tirana, have been in Pristina and what is most important, immediately after the discussions all these ideas have been put into the laws, in treaties, which at a very early time both countries' parliaments have ratified. Of great importance has been the adoption of laws dealing with the free movement of citizens, which means that residence permits already for Kosovo citizens in Albania and the citizens of Albania in Kosovo have become effective. Every citizen who gets a job in Kosovo -- every citizen who gets a job in Albania -- automatically receives a five-year residence permit. This will open up new opportunities in terms of development of the labour market, which in the past has been very problematic”, Minxhozi says.

Important agreements, according to Ambassador Minxhozi, also remain for the port of Durres, aimed at boosting co-operation in the field of trade and economy.

“also has been regulated with parliamentary decisions, even border points between the two countries, movement in territories dividing Albania and Kosovo. Special value is then, even the customs dealing. Pardje, Kosovo's parliament ratified and issued relevant guidelines for the customs point to be opened at the port of Durres. But there are also some customs facilities that will be between the two countries, which will serve mutually promoting the co-operation of various companies in the area of trade and economy”, he points out.

Ambassador Minxhozi claims that authorities in the two countries are willing this time to implement these agreements as a whole and not to block implementation as in the past.

What I mean is that, if we had a slowdown in implementing projects or decisions, or there have been cases that even haven't found the implementation as set out at the meeting, this time there's an increased energy, there's continuous communication and there's not just governments involved in this case, but there are the two countries' parliaments, which have made a valuable contribution in this regard. I hope that's how we'll walk, so we can get concrete results, which serve a strengthening of relations between us and why not grow those numbers of our exchanges, especially in the area of economics”, he says.

Minxhozi has acknowledged that there are barriers between Kosovo and Albania, but added that while there are limits there are also barriers.

He says the Government of Albania and Kosovo are working closely to ease these border barriers.

There's a barrier while there's a limit. The point is how these will soften. To soften these are important for two reasons, the first is the waiting time at the border as minimal as possible, and the other reason is to have as few letters as possible so as not to burden the cost of transportation on both sides. For this, I think we're in the right direction, and compared to the past years, we have less bureaucracy, but not completely extinct”, he points out.

He is also talking about agreements related to the pensions of Albania and Kosovo, warns that other agreements in the field of health and culture sector will soon be reached.

Days earlier, the Commission for Business, Work and Transfers in the Kosovo Assembly has voted to ratify two agreements between Kosovo and Albania. The first agreement concerns social insurance, meanwhile second with customs relief between Kosovo and Albania, which will affect the creation of a customs office in Durres.

Albanian diplomat Minxhozi also cited the trade balance between Kosovo and Albania, stressing that trade exchanges are 300m euros annually, 75 per cent in favour of Albania.