Tirana ready to fulfill France’s requests

TIRANA – The Albanian government will continue to keep the benchmarks set from the European Union on the visa liberalization as the main priorities in its daily work.
That means the fight against organized crime, corruption, management of the borders and other security issues and institutions. That is the pledge that the Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha made Wednesday after learning of France’s concern and request for some kind of guarantee that visa-free does not mean a flow of their citizens to the western countries.
“Tomorrow’s vote is also a great responsibility for us, so that all the agencies remain committed, and the road map and its requests on visa lifting will be a continuous working program,” said Berisha at a cabinet meeting. The premier also asked the institutions to increase the public awareness on what the visa liberalization meant for the Albanian citizens. Earlier this week Berisha visited the e-passports center at the Tirana Police Department and in a symbolic ceremony he handed over in person the new e-passport to Esmerilda Begati, which is the one millionth produced by the “Sagem” Co.
Berisha stressed that without these high-tech passports, the 27 EU member countries might have not considered visa liberalization for Albania. “Without the biometric passports of this high technology, without the biometric passports already issued massively, the 27 EU member countries could not consider Albania for the visa liberalization. This process constantly serves to the total modernization of the administration and services to the citizens,” he said.