On May 24, TV station ABC News announced that the Albanian industrial confederation had released an official declaration in which it requested the government to impose restrictions on Italian products and services in the country.
This declaration comes as a response to the restrictions imposed by the Italian government on Italian companies running call centers outside the EU.
In a press statement, representative of the industrial confederation Gjergj Buxhuku, declares:
The prohibition, at the initiative of the Italian government, of call center services from third countries, including Albania, is in gross violation of the principles of the free market, the regulations of the World Trade Organization and EU integration agreements signed by Albania.
The Italian government passed a law December 2016 which makes moving call centers that serve Italian citizens out of the country nearly impossible, except the smaller ones.
However, EU regulations do not allow member states to restrict trade with other member states, which means that in practice the law is particularly damaging for non-EU countries such as Albania, where Italian is widely spoken. Italian call centers are expected to move to Romania and Bulgaria, where Italian is equally wide-spread among the younger population.
