Newly-built and completely transformed up to European standard facilities at the Morine border crossing point have become fully operational. The infrastructure and technology investment is co-funded by the Albanian Government and the European Union and it precedes the project on the joint customs and border crossing point between Albania and Kosovo.
Prime Minister Edi Rama visited the recently reconstructed building and facilities, which will speed up the border and customs control procedures and ease cross-border flow of goods and people and facilitate exchanges between the two countries.
Minister of Finance and Economy Arben Ahmetaj said that with the project complete, the works on which will continue also next year, one of the best and most modern border crossing points will be built both in terms of border control and security as well as in the trade exchanges and people’s movement on both sides of the border between the two countries. “The new facilities are built with the EU financial assistance under IPA and it heralds the project on the joint border crossing point between Albania and Kosovo that will feature new facilities for the Border Police and Customs Administration. The project will be hopefully materialized in the next two or three months. Meanwhile, construction of the customs parking and other facilities is set to begin in 2019. The custom parking lies in a very small area, leading to serious logistics problems. We will ultimately address this problem in 2019 and I believe this will be one of the best crossing points.”
Operating under a common border crossing and customs point will significantly accelerate procedures and facilitate cross-border flow of goods, as vehicles will be processed in a single crossing point. The Deputy Interior Minister Rovena Voda explained how the joint cross border point works. “The two border crossing and customs services will share the same building. The Border Police of Kosovo and Albania will be housed here, whereas customs services of both countries will share the other side. I believe this will help also the fact that we are preparing for the common border crossing points with joint controls and patrols. This is drawn on the good experience over the past nine months with over 50 patrolling missions jointly conducted by the Albanian and Kosovo border police services. A large cross—border flow is registered at this border point. Around 4 million people and 1.47 million vehicles have passed through this border crossing point during the period from January through September. I am confident this investment co-funded with the Delegation of the EU, as well as the plan on the joint border crossing point, will significantly facilitate procedures and the flow of goods and people on both sides of the border.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama praised the finalization of efforts on construction of joint border crossing point with Kosovo, which will be mutually beneficial to the citizens of Albania and Kosovo. “It is important we finalize this joint border crossing point after so many years so that we avoid double border police and customs control procedures. It now becomes a border crossing with fast, unified control procedures by the customs and border police services of both states and the cross-border flow runs smoothly. This is a very important and major step forward, before we fulfil the implementation of the customs union,” the Premier said.
