The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs welcomes the decision of Greece to withdraw its reservation on Albania's accession to the Apostille Convention with immediate effect.

Withdrawal of such reservation has a positive practical impact mainly on Albanian citizens living and working in Greece as requirements of legalization for Greek and Albanian documents are abolished in both countries thus facilitating and speeding up the procedures for obtaining and using documents issued by Albanian and Greek institutions and significantly reducing the costs and time to the benefit of our citizens.

Due to this reservation, the cost of the legalization of documents issued by Albanian and Greek authorities for the Albanian citizens amounted to 6.7 million euros in 2017.

The decision of the Greek government makes up a completed commitment in the framework of the bilateral dialogue between Albania and Greece on issues that have been pending for a long time.

Apart from the real impact on the daily lives of our citizens, the withdrawal of the reservation on Albania's accession to Apostille Convention from all EU member states creates new opportunities for providing modern consular services to our citizens living in Greece.