TIRANA, March 23 – The governments of Albania and Kosovo signed 11 agreements and protocols with a focus on cooperation in security, border control, education, agriculture, trade and rural development between the two neighboring countries.
They were signed at a joint meeting of both countries’ governments in Tirana. It is the second joint meeting of its kind. The first was held in Prizren, Kosovo in January 2014.
Both prime ministers, Albania’s Edi Rama and Kosovo’s Isa Mustafa, pledged further steps to lift the barriers of the cooperation in security issues, business, education, tourism, art and more.
Rama also said Europe should be ashamed of leaving Kosovo as the lone country in the region with a visa barrier, saying that does not help progress and democracy there.
Albania repeated the pledge for continuous joint efforts for Kosovo’s recognition in the world.
There was also much focus on lifting the customs barriers between the two countries and urging businesses to cooperate more with each other.
The two countries have already made good progress in the education and art fields, which they aim to further, deepen in the near future.
Both countries are in the process of trying to become members of the European Union. Albania has been granted the candidate status while Kosovo is expecting to sign the Stabilization and Association membership. Albania is also a NATO member.
The cabinet ministers signed during the day five agreements, four memoranda and two protocols for the inter-border regions on public services, education and health.
The agreement on security and the border control were of special focus as both countries have pledged to be part of the global fight against terrorism.
The two countries also agreed to open a joint consulate in Munich, following the already operating joint consulate in Milan.
Rama pledged easier entrance and traffic at the border crossings points this year during the tourism summer season when hundreds of thousands of land-locked Kosovars travel to Albania’s beaches.
