TIRANA, Oct 21 /ATA/ – By Maela Marini/ Prime Minister Edi Rama stated on Monday that when the Socialist Party took office, it found Albania with only one bilateral agreement on social insurance recognition, while in the course of 10 years, more than 20 agreements were concluded under his government.
During a discussion with retirees about the pension scheme, Rama stated that the increase in pensions is a process driven by objective factors.
“There are cases of people who have left and come back here from Greece as retirees after working there for 30 years, and they say, ‘Why is my pension so small?’ But you weren’t here; you contributed there. On the other hand, this explains why we found Albania with just one agreement. In 23 years, only one agreement has been signed for recognition of the pensions of all Albanians who left their country,” said Rama.
The Prime Minister emphasized, “If his predecessors in office had concluded more than 20 agreements that were signed under his government in the span of 10 years, the situation would have been completely different.”
“I recall what we did with Italy, which was one of the two most difficult agreements. This is a process driven entirely by objective factors. It’s not a matter of whether one wants to or not, because there is no prime minister in the world who wouldn’t want to increase pensions, and the idea of raising pensions is certainly tempting since these are votes,” said Rama.
But, according to him, ‘doing this without thinking is like digging another hole for Albania, worse than that of the pyramid schemes.'”
/j.p/sm/
