TIRANA, Feb. 8 – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ilir Meta, also leader of the leftist Socialist Movement for Integration, which is part of the governing coalition, spoke recently on the visa liberalization progress.
Albania expects to get the go-ahead this summer.
Tirana did not join FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia last year to have the approval from the European Union Schengen member countries but was on the second list together with Bosnia. Kosovo has still to start negotiations with Brussels on the issue.
Meta spoke last week to the parliament on that issue.
Meta said that the visa liberalization is a process which needs the fulfillment of a set of strict criteria, as specified in the what is called “visa liberalization “Roadmap” of the EU Commission. These criteria are practically categorized in four blocks, whereby the first one deals with a major Roadmap element – document security, with the primary role played by the production and distribution of biometric passports.
The minister said that supplying citizens with biometric passports remained a precondition for the visa liberalization process.
A Roadmap was drafted, which was officially handed over in June 2008. It was in four blocks:
1. Security of documents;
2. Migration, border management and readmission;
3. Public order and security, and;
4. External relations and fundamental rights.
The minister said there is an ongoing communication process with the EU Commission, with the Albanian side sending updated briefings on the extent of compliance with the Roadmap criteria.
All the attention, energies and commitment are focused on the final stages of this process.
Albania has made fundamental improvement in the issue of the migration, border management and readmission, with the most significant achievement is the full installation and operation of TIMS system at all 26 Border Crossing Points.
Public order and security is the most complex block of the Roadmap as its issues are less measurable, said Meta.
Priority is paid to the implementation of the Strategy for Combating Organized Crime, Trafficking and Terrorism, under the Action Plan with specified measures for each institution under a clear calendar.
Following the entry into force of the new Law against Organized Crime (Anti- Mafia Law) its implementation as well as the implementation of the strategy and action plan shall be monitored in a strict, harmonious, integral and systematic way by the Inter-Institutional Committee for the Measures on Combating Organized Crime, Trafficking and Terrorism.
The Government’s commitment to renew the Moratorium for the navigation for powerful motor vehicles will also have its proper effects in combating organized crime, he said.
The fight against corruption is focused both in its prevention through regulatory measures, as one-stop-shop and on – line services, and in the cooperation among the agencies for the identification, apprehension and punishment of all corruptive acts.
Two of the remaining obligations of the External Relations and Fundamental Rights Block include the commitment under the Decade of Roma and the New Anti – Discrimination Law.
For the Roma community the National Strategy and Action Plan are already adopted while the Anti – Discrimination Law was passed by the Parliament last week.
“We are in the final stage of the visa liberalization process, which in the coming days will continue with the visit by two monitoring missions for Block 2 (borders, migration) on 22-25 February and Block 3 (security, fight against organized crime, trafficking, anti-corruption) on 8-12 February 2010,” said the minister.
Meta said they considered as very important the cooperation with all other actors of the Albanian society, so that this historic process ends successfully.
The collapse of the “Schengen Wall” for many Albanians will undoubtedly mark a great relief from a “psychological burden” that has held hostage the dream of several generations to move freely in Europe, and would entitle them with their deserved right that all European citizens enjoy, the minister said.
