Prime Ministers of Albania and Montenegro Edi Rama and Zdravko Krivokapić opened a joint border crossing, Zatrijebačka Cijevna – Grabon, between Montenegro and Albania in the presence of Hermann Spitz, charge d’affaires of the EU Delegation to Montenegro on Tuesday, RTCG reported.
The border crossing was built in 2017 with the support of the European Union within the IPA cross-border cooperation program Montenegro – Albania, in order to connect Podgorica and Gusinje through the territory of Albania. Krivokapić announced that this is the second joint border crossing with Albania. Montenegro now has three common border crossings, two with Albania and one with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
PM Rama stated that “today is a good day because another wall falls between Albania and Montenegro.”
According to him, that was not enough if all non-tariff barriers are not removed and if the crossing of citizens without wasting any minutes waiting for the identification of documents is achieved.
“Soon, we will commit to build the bridge that connects Velipopja with the part here with Shtoj and I do not understand how we will build a bridge which is a tourist crossing road, and we will have checks again. I hope that in parallel with the construction of the bridge, we will remove all barriers of a bureaucratic, non-tariff nature and the identification of people. This is happening in all European Union countries.”
Rama wished that together with Prime Minister Krivokapic and Deputy Prime Minister Abazovic, and with the entire Montenegrin government, progress be made quickly for Montenegro to be included without wasting time in the Open Balkans initiative. /argumentum.al
