Albania and Italy have concluded technical negotiations for an agreement on pensions leading to mutual recognition between the two countries.
The news was announced by Prime Minister Edi Rama through a post on his official Facebook page.
“After the completion of the technical process, the procedures for the ratification of this agreement will be followed, and finally, after a long and almost impossible effort, about 500,000 Albanians are expected to benefit from its entry into force,” Rama wrote.
Earlier, the Italian ambassador Fabrizio Buçi told Euronews Albania that the issue of pensions was being addressed.
He said that Albanians living in Italy for many years had not received pensions, and this situation is expected to be resolved within this year.
Thousands of Albanians who have worked and paid taxes in Italy are in a fiscal limbo, due also to the lack of an agreement between Albania and Italy on pensions.
Under current Italian law, a person must have worked for at least twenty years in Italy to receive a pension.
So far, it has been impossible for Albanian immigrants who reside in Italy to integrate the years worked and contributed fiscally in Albania towards their pension. Based on these calculations, thousands of Albanians immigrants who have worked for decades in both countries have been unable to retire, or have been left without pensions.
In addition to filling this gap, an agreement between the two countries on pensions would allow Albanians who have returned home to obtain a partial pension from Italy based on the years worked in the latter.
According to OBC Transeuropa, around 286,733 Albanians work in Italy contributing €4 billion euros in taxes every year.
