Tirana improves border management

TIRANA, Oct 26 – Albania will soon include its entire border crossing points into one system that is also directly linked with Interpol.
That is another proper move along the country’s efforts for getting the visa-free regime from the European Union.
Last weekend EC Ambassador Helmuth Lohan visited the Bllata Border Crossing Point with FYROM which is currently being constructed through a total EC fund of more than 2.7 million euro aiming at improving border police surveillance, patrolling and control capacities and those of the Customs Service along the entire Albanian border.
The construction and enhancement of capacities of altogether 10 border crossing points between Albania and its neighboring countries is an important step towards better control and prevention of illegal trafficking that will bring the country closer to the EU in various aspects.
The ambassador also visited the Special Operative Group site in Bllata, the infrastructure and technical capacities of which are being raised through a total EC fund of 1.5 million euro that is being spent on 17 such buildings across the country. The aim is again to improve the surveillance and control capacities of the Albanian border authorities.
Lohan noted the obvious progress and also said that with this “Ʋhythm Albania will soon comply with the criteria of the visa liberalization.”
Albania is installing the TIMS integrated system directly linked with the MEMEX information based on Interpol data. All the country’s 26 border crossing points will be equipped with this system within this month, according to the interior ministry, thus completing a fully integrated and solid border management.
Albania was not included with FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia into the new visa-free regime and was asked to take other steps to comply with the road map requirements.
Last week Slovenian Interior Minister Katarina Kresal, attending a session of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, urged her colleagues to step up the process for scrapping visas for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania.