Albania to get IDs for easy travel

TIRANA, Nov 4 – Albanian officials have insisted recently that the country will start producing secure ID cards and biometric passports that meet Western standards in 2009 so that Albanians can travel freely and that fake papers will not tarnish elections next spring.
That was also mentioned by the deputy Prime Minister Genc Pollo on Monday evening at the parliament session. He said specifically that the new ID and passport could be first requested Jan. 12 and received a week or ten days later, adding that 20,000 new IDs and passports would be produced every day and the entire population would be equipped with them next year.
A national data register will be completed soon that will allow both the identification of 3.2 million Albanian citizens, including about one million migrants.
Secure identity papers will enable Albania, which hopes to join the European Union, to meet stringent EU criteria for freer travel without visas, provide its citizens with tamper-proof documents and prevent cheating in elections.
Visa-free Albanians are still a dream, despite pledges of the governing Democratic Party executive and from Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini that they would likely be signed at the end of the first half next year.
A few days later the Czech foreign minister, who is to get the EU presidency first half 2009, said that would practically be impossible.
The European Commission has praised Albania’s economic and justice reforms but urged it to do more to fight organized crime and corruption and to hold clean elections if it wants to advance its bid to join the 27-member bloc.
The new ID cards and passports will be controlled by the civil registry. Albania has given the EU-funded concession to produce the documents to France’s Sagem, owned by the SAFRAN Group, and the Albanian American Enterprise Fund.
The EU has asked Albania to ensure that a reliable civil registry is in place and that identity documents in line with international standards are issued to all voters sufficiently in advance of the next parliamentary elections.
Albania was invited to join NATO this year hoping to become a full member likely next spring.
It also has hinted it may apply to the European Union for candidate status next year, the next stage on the road to eventual membership, after all member countries have ratified the SAA it signed two years ago.