EU to Liberalise Visa Regime for Albania in 2009
BalkanTravellers.com
During Basha’s meeting yesterday with the Vice-President of the European Commission Jacques Barrot, Albania’s Foreign Minister concentrated on his country’s process of issuing new identity documents for Albanian citizens, including identification cards and passports with biometric data, the Panorama newspaper reported.
According to the publication, Basha underscored that supplying citizens with these high-security documents is one of the government’s priorities, aiming to fulfil the EU’s criteria for the visa regime liberalisation.
The Albanian government’s goal is for Albania to join in the next year the countries that enjoy visa-free travel to the EU, according to Panorama.
As BalkanTravellers.com reported, recently, the Greek ambassador to Albania, Nikolaos Pazios, promised that Albanian citizens will be able to travel without visas to Greece in the near future.
The EU visa regime liberalisation is part of the Union’s general initiative to ease restrictions for the Western Balkan countries. It started a dialogue with Serbia in January of this year and continued with Macedonia and Montenegro in February, as BalkanTravellers.com reported in May.
Before the EU liberalises its visa regime towards Albania, the country will have to fulfil a list of requirements, including the introduction of identification documents containing biometric data and fighting illegal migration and organised crime.
Albanian citizens have enjoyed some benefits since the beginning of the year. Some categories of visitors to the EU, such as students, athletes, cultural workers and journalists enjoy easier visa access. In addition, the visa fee was lowered from 60 to 35 euros and visas that are valid for up to five years and allow multiple entries are now issued.
Read more about Albania on BalkanTravellers.com
Epicure
Turkey
Izmir Gourmet: Food is in the Air
Food is literally everywhere in Izmir.
The first stop a traveller would usually make, is Passaport – the vivid promenade along the seaside, which has turned into a landmark with its black and white pavement.
Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
Stecci to be Nominated as Joint Cultural Heritage by 4 Balkan Countries
5 November 2009 | In a rare move of cooperation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro recently agreed to nominate the medieval tombstones, known as stecci, scattered across the four countries as their shared cultural heritage to the UN World Heritage List. Full Story
Useful Reads
Montenegro
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro (2007) | By Elizabeth Roberts
Although released just in 2007, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro comes from a much older school of scholarship. With this much needed work, former diplomat Elizabeth Roberts has produced the newest and best introduction to the full history of a storied and sometimes inscrutable land the identity of which was formed equally by its forbidding mountains and balmy Adriatic coast- still the features most representative of Montenegro today and most enticing to its increasing number of foreign visitors.
Full Story
Music
Macedonia
Macedonia: Esma Redžepova's Passion for Humanity
"A Gypsy from the city of Skopje", as she calls herself, Esma Redžepova has more than 40 years of singing and humanitarian efforts under her belt. Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
