Minister of Social Welfare and Youth Erion Veliaj:

The Council of Ministers has just been concluded its meeting that endorsed, inter alia, 17 decisions that aim to approximate the Albanian legislation with that of EU community, in the course of membership process.

Actually, these 17 decisions apply to all obligations regarding EU, in terms of the labour market and its liberalization. This means that with the entry into force of these decisions, we are implementing and have started implementation – despite the situation with the status and our waiting for the confirmation of candidate status – and have approximated Albania’s legislation for two chapters, 2 and 24.

Chapter 2 is related to the freedom of movement for workers throughout the common European market, whereas Chapter 24 deals with justice, freedom and security of individuals in the European Union territory. This is an endeavour of our Government, in line with the request of the Prime Minister that despite the candidate status situation all ministries have proceeded to the unilateral approximation of our legislation for each of the chapters we would have to officially negotiate upon the granting of candidate status.

I want to underline that these 17 agreements precede the labour market liberalization that we aim to realize also with other countries, especially with Kosovo, following Prizren meeting. Starting from this month, we will have in place a series of legislative reforms relating to the labour market, meaning that we will liberalize the labour market from Mitrovica to Gjirokastra. This means that any citizens of the Republic of Kosova or Albania will be able to work throughout this geographical space, from Mitrovica to Gjirokastra without the  constraint of a working permit. I believe this is very good news and and a concrete project that follows Prizren meeting.

I would like to stress that we have established a working group which will work towards the liberalization of labour market, that is, lifting of the work permit requests and quota. That will additionally apply to all the young people from Presheva Valley who wish to work in the Republic of Albania.

Thank you!

Minister of Integration Klajda Gjoshaj:

First of all, allow me to congratulate also the Minister of Social Welfare for all the work done in the framework of meeting all the requirements deriving from Albania EU Progress Report of October 2013. Regarding some key issues and the 17 decisions endorsed by the Council of Ministers relating  to the free movement of all foreigners who want to come and work in Albania, they are of special importance. This certainly applies to all those educated persons who want to come and invest in Albania to start their business or respective companies, because this is first and direcly linked to the creation of new jobs, the latter being a pivotal part of the policies pursued by this Government that will be continuously supported by all the respective legislation, in order to offer them all the opportunities to come to Albania and create as many new jobs as possible.

Allow me to stress that, like the Minister said, this move is fundamental, because in this case we are not only working for candidate country status by transposing the legislation and meeting the fifth recommendation on human rights, but we are also meeting some of requirements applicable to the opening of negotiations.

The Ministry of European Integration is conducting a thorough analysis of the 17 decisions that are focused on fulfilling Chapters 2, 24.  Allow me to underline the fact that we will do this not only to align our legislation to that of EU or to advance with the integration process,, but also to completely transform our system in order to change the life of Albanian citizens definitively, attract as many foreign investors  and foreign tourists as possible, who want to come to Albania to invest and develop our country at the same time.

All these are fundamental requirements. We will not only continue to work with the Ministry of Social Welfare, as, at the same time, we are working hard on all of the 5 recommendations that include the reform in public administration, anti-corruption issues, fight against organized crime and human rights and, further, the judicial reform , which is highly crucial to meeting  the five 5 EU recommendations.

Thank you!