Europese Commissie sluit akkoord met Albanië over terugkeer illegale immigranten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has negotiated a readmission agreement with Albania on behalf of the 15 EU countries, in order to return Albanians who illegally enter the EU - the first agreement of its kind with another European country.

Tirana has also agreed to accept returning immigrants that transited Albania to arrive to an EU country.

This agreement is the fourth that the European Commission has negotiated - after Hong Kong, Macao and Sri Lanka - and the first of the sort with a European country.

Negotiations on readmission agreements are currently still ongoing with another seven countries - Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, China and Turkey - some of whom are tying the conclusion of these agreements with other demands.

Morocco wants other accords on legal immigration while Russia and Ukraine want to obtain facilities as regards to visas.

These demands were opposed by Spain and Germany during yesterday's meeting of EU home affairs ministers, leading Spain to propose the inclusion of penalty clauses to sanction a non-EU country, which does not respect the agreement signed.