Waiting for the visa-free regime

TIRANA, Jan. 5 – The government insists by mid-year Albanians will be free to travel to the European Union member countries, stating they have fulfilled all the requirements of the road map set for them.
That is really what millions of Albanians in their homeland and also immigrants around the continent are expecting.
Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will soon join the Schengen zone, former EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in an interview with the Podgorica-based daily, Pobjeda, last weekend.
Solana stressed that regional co-operation and peace in the Balkans are critical to the region, and added that its prospects lie not in division but in European integration.
He also welcomed the EU’s decision to scrap the visa regime for citizens of Montenegro, Serbia and FYROM last month, adding that Kosovo is on the path to visa liberalization as well.
Spain, which is holding the EU rotating presidency this first half of the year, has pledged it will help Tirana on visa liberalization.
Interior Minister Lulzim Bbasha made recently a visit to Madrid where he met with his counterpart, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, who assured Basha of his commitment at the European Commission on visa liberalization for the two remaining western Balkan countries (Kosovo is still to be considered by Brussels).
Basha informed his Spanish counterpart that Tirana had fulfilled all the requirements needed before taking such a step. He also insisted that fighting organized crime and corruption remained his cabinet’s top priorities along this road. The minister referred to facts such as cracking down on some 200 criminal organizations, blocking their financial resources and confiscating their assets and many other steps. The government also formally renewed the law on the banning of speed boats used by Albanians for the next three years.
Basha also expressed his willingness to sign an agreement on fighting organized crime and terrorism. Tirana and Madrid would nominate their contact police officers in respective their capitals.