Press Statement of the Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri:

Today the government approved the draft law for the registration of Albanian citizens residing abroad, thus paving the way for a fundamental process in our nation-building efforts. To end once and for all the darkness of information, but above all the lack of service to all Albanians who have built their lives abroad together with their families.

This is a very important process in the context of another process to create a unique registry of citizens and addresses, called “Population”. In addition to improving the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in terms of the civil registry and registry of addresses, through this process we will go to the door of every Albanian family to populate both registers and make them one, and to have the information we have been missing over the last 20 years on how many Albanians there are in the country and where they live.

On the other hand, the creation of the special register for Albanians living abroad, who have contributed and still contribute in a significant way to the development of our country, and hold constant and intense relations with country, will finally pay to migrants owed to them by the state. The register of citizens living abroad will allow them to have services provided where they live.

The process we have designed charges to the state the responsibility and obligation to make the registration of immigrants.

What Albanians living abroad are required is just the initiative to provide information, whether in the consular offices or institutions of our country, or through a very simple mechanism for the online registration of addresses.

The burden for the confirmation of addresses, the confirmation of information and for being constantly in touch with Albanian citizens living abroad belongs to the Albanian state and to Albanian institutions.

So we have created a possibility to undo the darkness of over 20 years, and the lack of services in over 20 years to Albanians living abroad, to whom we owe this.

This is the first time in 25 years that the state and society have repaid the debt to immigrants, by creating an opportunity for them to register, and a big opportunity to be provided services in their homes. Services range from basic consular services and official documentation required to immigrants in the countries where they live, to services that they have received so far only in Albania, thus spending money and time and having it extremely difficult to be in touch with the country.

We are breaking down all these barriers, by creating technological opportunities for Albanian citizens to register, and to be provided services in their homes.

Of course, one fundamental services is included here for Albanian citizens living abroad, and this is the right to vote.

It has been a constant promise emerging to the surface anytime politics has been concerned about immigrants. This government is making the first concrete step to guarantee the right to vote to Albanian citizens living abroad. By registering them, by knowing where they live, we pave the way to ensure that Albanian citizens will contribute to the political life of the country, will contribute to the political class and will contribute to the fate of the country, by deciding the fate of the future through the exercise of the right of vote.

We have inherited this promise since a long time, but it has become now a concrete commitment, and concrete steps have been taken by this government to guarantee the right to vote for Albanian immigrants once and for all.

This law adopted today in the government lays the groundwork for the full range of services to be provided to Albanians living abroad, including the cornerstone or the first step to guarantee the right to vote.

The Ministry of Interior, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other institutions, will work to build the system and the whole range of services that will be provided to immigrants.

My call to all Albanians living abroad is attention, initiative and assistance to do everything possible to bring this process to a successful conclusion. What is required today by Albanians living abroad is to be registered. With the entry into force of this law, they are required to provide information when contacted by state structures.

It is up to us to complete the system and to ensure services. This is the only way to guarantee and to turn back to immigrants the debt owed to them by the Albanian state in these 25 years.

Thank you!

 

Press Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati:

As the Minister of Interior mentioned, the government adopted today this legislative initiative which we hope Parliament will support very soon. It is a very important initiative, not just to identify Albanians wherever they live, but above all it is a clear indication of the political will of our government, our majority, to repay the debt that Albania owes to its citizens who have contributed to the economic and social development of the country during these 25 years.

But this is not simply an isolated act of the Government. Equally important will be the year 2016 in terms of consular services, which thanks to the will of the Albanian Government, and thanks to a support fund, by the end of this year every consular services will be digitized to further increase transparency towards our fellow citizens, to limit and avoid at maximum the cases of abuse of duty in service delivery, which unfortunately are present still to this day. This government is aware that the situation is not the best possible, or what we want it to be. In addition, through the digitization of consular services, a process to be closed this year, we aim at assisting the process of identification and registration of Albanian citizens wherever they live, in order to gradually move towards the implementation of the right to vote, and take part in major decisions in Albania.

The Albanian government approved today the agreement with the EBRD on massive investments in agriculture and rural development. It is the first agreement of this kind that a government or a state in the region has entered with the EBRD.

It is about creating the adoption of a national mechanism that would create opportunities for the activation of the capital of commercial banks for the next three years, up to 300 million euros. Guarantor for this capital and these investments in agriculture and rural development will be the Albanian government and the EBRD, with the agreement that was signed today.

So this is not an agreement in the formal sense of the word “diplomatic”, or that is subject of international law. This is one of those important agreements for we expect a quick support of the Parliament, to pave the way for the creation of the national guarantee mechanism, where parties will feel accomplished.

On the one hand investors in agriculture, commercial banks that will activate the capital, the Albanian government and the EBRD, which will remain the guarantor of investments to be made in Albania over the next three years.

I reiterate that this is the first agreement EBRD signed with one of the countries of our region, namely with our country, and this agreement will promote not only sustainable development in agriculture, but we aim through this agreement at increasing exports, increasing employment and thereby reducing the gap between our region and our country, and the requirements to be met in the field of agriculture as a very important area in the process of European integration. Therefore, on behalf of the Albanian government, with regard to the two initiatives that we adopted today, we express our confidence that the Albanian Parliament will support them as soon as possible in order to start and yield produce results.

Thank you!