Tanja Fayon promoting understanding of visa liberalization

TIRANA, Oct. 25 – Tanja Fayon, the Slovenian European lawmaker who was in charge of the roadmap for Albania and Bosnia, came to Tirana to meet with local authorities and also hold a lecture telling young Albanians what was the meaning fo the visa-free regime.
Tanja Fayon meet with senior officials, including Interior Minister Lulzim Basha and Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, and also met with groups of students lecturing them on the visa liberaliaztion.
Albania is expecting a positive decision from the European Council Interior Ministers on the visa liberalization in early November, following which it remains to be published at the official gazette before it comes to power.
That practically means that Albanians, with a biometric passport, will need no visa to enter the EU Schengen countries, including Switzerland and Norway.
Albania expects visa-free travel with the European Union to provide the biggest boost to its economy in two decades.
Albania, a potential candidate for EU membership, relies on annual remittances from abroad, which equal about 15 percent of GDP, mostly from citizens living in Italy and Greece, according to the CIA factbook.
The Adriatic Sea nation that became part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization in April last year will gain visa-free travel to the 27-nation bloc along with Bosnia- Herzegovina by year’s end.
Albanian authorities have launched a public awareness campaign to explain to the people why they should not exploit the visa-free regime to go and stay or look for a job in the Schengen countries.
European countries fear that people understand it as a permission to go and live or work in their areas, something that has been sparked by the fact that a few thousand people from Macedonia and Serbia have asked for asylum. Both these countries and Montenegro joined the visa-free regime last year.