12.1.2008 by admin.

FYROM imposes visa regime TIRANA, Jan. 8 – The Albanian Foreign Ministry said it has begun negotiations with Macedonia regarding the visa regime between the two countries. Macedonian and Albanian media have reported that Skopje intends to revoke the rule of issuing visas at border check points and introduce a set of new applications procedures that require the submission of supporting documents by visa applicants for the review of the Macedonian consular section in Tirana. The head of the Parliamentarian Committee for Foreign Policy, Preç Zogaj, criticized such a plan, arguing that free movement was in the interest of both countries who have similar aspirations of EU integration. He also said that Albania will not do the same if Macedonia decides to introduce a stricter visa regime.

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Albania’s foreign ministry protests Macedonia’s new visa rules
11/01/2008

TIRANA, Albania — Macedonia’s new visa regime establishes restrictive procedures for Albanian citizens who travel to Macedonia, the foreign ministry said on Thursday (January 10th). The ministry summoned Macedonia’s Ambassador to Tirana Blagorodna Mingova-Krepieva to express concern over the new rules and to call for a solution. Macedonia said it will introduce visa restrictions for the citizens of over 140 countries effective on February 1st, as part of the country’s obligations as an EU aspirant. (GazetaShqiptare, Shqip, Korrieri, Shekulli - 11/01/08; Balkanweb, Top-Channel, News24TV

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12.1.2008 by admin.

• Emigration: net gain or brain drain?

  11/01/2008

  Money from abroad may help families back home, but at what long-term cost to the country? Also this week: the public mounts a protest against a planned thermal plant.

  By Klodjan Seferaj for Southeast European Times –11/01/08

  Albania is losing much of its skilled workforce — including scientists, researchers, senior managers and academics — who seek a better life abroad. [AFP]

  For many Albanians, going abroad is a way not only to improve their own lives but to help those back home. Besides gaining opportunities that are unavailable domestically, emigrants pump money into the Albanian economy, one of Europe’s poorest.

  But do these gains come at too steep a price? Although money from abroad may provide a windfall for needy families, emigration also deprives the home country of skilled labour and may hurt its chances to thrive.

  “Usually the emigrants’ money is being considered as a positive factor for the Albanian economy — the funds that they send to their families or the euros and dollars that they spend when they come to their motherland,” writes Xha xhai in his blog. “But is it true? In my opinion, since 1990, the people who migrate from Albania represent the most productive part of the population and we are not speaking only about the intellectual part of the population.”

  “The brain drain continues also today and it doesn’t seem to stop. This is not a good thing for the future. More complicated is the issue of money that they send to their families. It is obvious that the money has a really big value for their families, but does it have value also for the economy? In my opinion the money that they send is one of the reasons why everything is being imported,” he concludes.

  Elsewhere in the Albanian blogs, peshkupauje posts a report on public protests against a planned thermal energy plant at Vlora.

  Commenting on the action, Blendi thinks that whether or not local residents are right in their opposition, the fact that they are doing so is healthy for democracy.

  “Even if the problem definitely has a NIMBY (”not in my back yard”) aspect, we have to applaud the responsibility of the citizens regardless of whether they are right or wrong. The right to a referendum can’t be denied,” he writes.

  Anonymous disagrees. “This thing with the referendum is a ’slippery slope’! A very bad precedent is being created! Because tomorrow other cities will request referenda in order to close the city prison, get the madhouse out of the neighbourhood, the high tension pylon out of the city grass…..”

  Blendi replies: “The thermal plant is a real need, but the government is wrong. This area has other values — the environment, tourism — and we can’t allow them to ignore this fact.”

  “In my opinion it isn’t easy to achieve an equal democracy,” Wasu concludes. “In theory I agree with the referendum but in practice I think that is very difficult. As for the protest, I don’t think that they are wrong. On the contrary, I congratulate them.”

  This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

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