In his remarks on the occasion, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that “this is the 7th intergovernmental meeting of Albania and Kosovo.”

“Today we convene after a year like no other due to pandemic, but also after achieving a considerable number of things that have been discussed. “We have a considerable number of agreements and some of them are on the way to implementation, some have been implemented, while the common challenge is to boost the viability of the agreements and in fact to achieve a full synergy between the two countries in all walks of life,” said Rama.

Rama said that today we bring the bilateral cooperation closer to the people, we move on to another phase in facilitating free movement, employment and greater interaction between the two communities on both sides of the border.

Speaking about the agreements that are scheduled to be signed on Friday, Rama said that “I am glad that today we are jointly committed to scrap temporary residence permits, to open the joint border crossing in Shishtavec of Kukes and to regulate the local traffic regime on border. ”

Also, the Prime Minister added that the agreement we are expected to sign, streamlines the procedures for obtaining an automatic residence permit, which is quite natural but we had to sit down and materialize it in a joint document, regardless of the reason for stay.

On the other hand, Rama said that “we create very favourable conditions on both sides of the border for access to the labour market and for another step forward in merging the markets into a single space where Albanians can work, study, create families and access every service and retire by benefiting from every contribution and social right regardless of geographical location in Albania or Kosovo. ”

Also, the Prime Minister stressed that “recognition of social security is an agreement that is part of a package, which as a whole sends a meaningful message to guarantee the freedom of choice of every citizen in Albania or Kosovo to work on whatever side of the border and achieve unconditional mobility.”

Through another special agreement, Rama added that graduates from our countries will have the opportunity to access mutual automatic recognition of diplomas very soon.

The Prime Minister added that cooperation in the field of education, innovation, scientific research has been considered by both governments from the very beginning a priority and the precursor to deepening this cooperation as an urgent need to strengthen our human capital is our task.
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