Issue that had long hampered the cross-border movement of Albanian children born in Greece has been solved through an agreement of the two foreign ministries.
TIRANA, May 12 – Greece and Albania have come to an agreement over how Albanian passports will spell the name of cities in Greece, an issue that had long hampered the cross-border movement of Albanian children born in Greece, the two foreign ministries said this week.
The countries have agreed to use English spellings of the Greek cities in Albanian passports and certificates, something that has for long been an issue of concern for hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants resident in neighboring Greece who could not cross the border with their kids, because Greek authorities refused to accept Albanian passports that spelled, for example, “Athens” in Albanian, “Athine.”
At a meeting in Brussels Monday, Greece’s Foreign Minister Affairs Evangelos Venizelos and his Albanian counterpart Ditmir Bushati said the agreement was reached after discussions between the two governments, and it allowed for a transitional period that allowed some of the old documents to still be used. Albanian residents in Greece will have to replace the documentation with new ones until January next year.
The agreement “shows the seriousness of our government to provide practical solutions to problems inherited from previous years,” Bushati said in a press conference Wednesday.
His Greek counterpart said the agreement was achieved under international regulations.
“We agreed with full respect for international law and good neighborly relations to use names accepted by both sides, as is the international policy. Thus, an issue that plagues ordinary people, who do not want to be inconvenienced, will be resolved. We are taking a step toward good neighborly relations, a step which is naturally associated with the European prospect for our neighboring country, in which we invest a lot of hope,” said Venizelos.
He also said that, “Our goal, during the Greek Presidency, is for Albania to formally acquire the status of candidate to become an EU member-state.” Athens keeps the EU presidency during the first half this year.
