Korça, 27th of November, 2017
Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Skender Reçica, attended the joint meeting of the Government of Republic of Albania and the Government of Republic of Kosova, which was held today in the city of Korça.
In the framework of many important agreements signed at the joint meeting between Albania and Kosovo, there was also the confirmation of the periods of insurance for the realization of the right to pension, which was signed by the Minister of Finance and Economy of Albania, Mr. Arben Ahmetaj, and the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Mr. Skender Reçica.
Minister Reçica, during the presentation of the agreement, stated that the agreement intends to realize the right to pensions for the citizens of our two countries.
Full speech of the Minister:
Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania, Edi Rama,
Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosova, Ramush Haradinaj,
Honorable Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers of Our Governments
I feel privileged, believing that you all feel the same, that we are today together in this place, in our Korçë of the first Albanian school, and on the eve of the Flag holiday. So, we are together on an important cooperation mission for a common governance for the benefit of our nation.
Allow me today, before you, to introduce the Agreement on the certification of insurance periods, which intends to realize the right to pensions for the citizens of our two countries. For the realization of this agreement, it has been negotiated by the two Governments, final draft has been finalized and has also passed through the procedures according to the laws on the international agreements of our two countries.
The Agreement shall be implemented in accordance with the legislation in force of the Contracting Parties, which regulates the area of pensions, and its provisions shall only apply to the mutual recognition of insurance periods in order to meet the conditions for entitlement to a retirement pension old age, invalidity pension and family pension of citizens of Albania and Kosovo.
This Agreement shall also apply to legal provisions on the extension of current schemes to new categories of beneficiaries, if there are no objections from the Contracting Party which has in the meantime changed its legislation to which the other Contracting Party will is announced within six months, from the official publication of the qualified acts.
I would like to emphasize that this agreement is of special importance because it helps the citizens of both countries to realize a legal and human right, that they have not had the opportunity to use so far.
Honorable participants,
We have a lot of work ahead of ourselves, we’ve lost a lot of time. I wish we learned from this delay and wish to turn our Departments into an example to be followed.
Thank you!