TIRANA, July 27 /ATA/ A press conference was held on Wednesday at the Embassy of Italy in Tirana, regarding the communication of results achieved during the first meeting of the negotiations.
The Ambassador of Italy, Fabrizio Bucci, said at the conference that, “following several days of intensive work and negotiations, the text that will regulate the pension and social security agreement between Italy and Albania has been agreed upon.”
“It is an important result, a great result, the fruit of the work of these months, but it is a problem carried over for many years,” said Ambassador Bucci.
“This agreement will be the legal instrument that will bridge this gap that existed in bilateral relations,” he emphasized.
“There are over 700,000 Albanian citizens living and working in Italy who have been paying pension contributions all these years. But there are also many Italian citizens who work here and pay contributions. Now there is also the category of Italian pensioners who settle here in Albania. So there was a need for this mechanism to regulate relations between the two countries in terms of pensions,” said Bucci.
Senator Tommaso Nannicini said in his speech that “there were several days of negotiations, of a battle for rights that has been going on for years. For several years now, the rights of people who have contributed through work to two countries with strong economic and cultural ties have been denied. Despite all these sacrifices, work, contributions, there are rights that are not recognized. This battle that helps the Albanian and Italian community ushers in an important era.”
“The negotiations of both delegations were held in a climate of a common objective. Even though we were on different sides of the table, we were working towards the same objective, which we achieved. We finally have come up with a text signed by both delegations. It is a text that translates those demands into rights. Afterwards, these signatures will be followed by the official signatures of the two governments,” said Nannicini.
Geri Ballo, initiator of the petition, said that “pension is a right. We support the Italy-Albania agreement. The Albanian community in Italy is an important community in terms of numbers, economic, social and cultural contribution.”
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