Albania, Kosova planning a mini Schengen zone

TIRANA, Jan 12 – Last week, President Bamir Topi was in Prishtina, Kosova, where a main purpose of meetings was to discuss a proposed mini-Schengen zone.
Topi and his Kosovar counterpart, Fatmir Sejdiu, discussed the idea of first creating a Schengen zone between Albania and Kosova that would later be enlarged into a zone to include Macedonia and Montenegro.
They said free and quick movement of goods, capital and people would be of great importance.
Both presidents agreed to the maximum opening of the Albanian-Kosovar border to ensure the free movement of people and capital. Albania and Kosova will sign a series of agreements, which according to Sejdiu will be a good example for Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as for the region.
Further, Kosova and Albania said they will sign an agreement for the creation of such a zone between themselves within two months. Currently, citizens can cross the border between the two countries by presenting a passport or driver’s license.
“The agreement will enable citizens to move freely and ease administrative procedures,” Topi said, also dismissing the possibility of a union between Kosova and Albania, saying that “the unification will happen in Brussels, in the European family.”
After the two states sign the agreement, their presidents plan to send the agreement to other states in the Balkans as an example of trade liberalization and integration on the way to EU membership.
Macedonia is already considering the proposal of the presidents of Albania and Kosova. “The idea for a visa-free regime sounds nice, but since it has just been introduced, we haven’t managed to look into it. We’ll have to ask the judicial experts in the Interior Ministry, to make sure there are no legal impediments,” Macedonia’s Vice-Interior Minister Zoran Petrov told the newspaper Vest.