TIRANA / PODGORICA – Minister of European Integration held an official visit to Montenegro. Despite the meetings with senior officials of the state, Minister Gjosha also participated in the first meeting of the Joint Committee for European Integration between Montenegro and Albania.
This Committee is held after the agreement between the two countries in the framework of accession into European Union, signed in 2015.
In her greeting words Minister Gjosha underlined the importance of this meeting, which deepens the intensive and fruitful cooperation between Albania and Montenegro, on behalf of the common objective for accession in EU with full rights.
“Albania and Montenegro” are undoubtedly two countries at different stages of the process. Montenegro is one step ahead of us. This makes the cooperation even more effective as we are convinced that your experience will be precious in order for us to follow best practices, not making the same mistakes that you may have made earlier throughout the process”, said Minister Gjosha.
Minister of Integration mentioned the challenges laying ahead to Albania regarding the integration process, stressing out the importance of the judicial reform as primary for the citizens.
“We are focused on the judicial reform, a crucial reform on which we are working above all for our citizens, because they deserve a reliable judicial system, which in fact constitutes a key condition on building a consolidated democracy. We hope this reform is finalized as soon as possible, in order for Albania to be granted the recommendation by the European Union for the opening of negotiations, a decisive stage for the whole European journey” Minister Gjosha said.
The Minister stressed that the harmonization of legislation, management of pre-accession instruments and other assistances related directly to the integration of our two countries are areas where Albania-Montenegro cooperation is of particular importance.
As she stated, exchange of experts will help these processes, making us advance our common European agenda. A few weeks ago we closed successfully the cross-border project with Montenegro and meanwhile it has started cooperation for the management of technical assistance for the new cross-border programme IPA 2014-2020.
I am convinced that we will successfully meet the overall objective of this programme by promoting a more balanced, inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development of the border area, and contributing to the promotion of employment, social and cultural inclusion across the shared border. Such programs are precisely those that make us together, with direct impact on citizens, as integration of a country as we all know begins and ends with them.
This committee takes a greater value in the framework of the Berlin process, which has as its mainstay the regional cooperation, giving another impetus to the approach of all the Western Balkan countries with the great European family.