The Foreign Affairs Commission in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies in Italy have approved the pension agreement with Albania, together with the amendments for the allocation of the relevant funds.

The Socialist Party MP, Etjen Xhafaj informed that this is the last step before the approval in plenary session, adding that the agreement benefits tens of thousands of Albanians.

Meanwhile, the agreement in the Albanian Parliament has been approved and published in the Official Gazette. The object of this agreement is the benefits from the compulsory social insurance scheme, which include old-age, disability, and family pension insurance, sickness and maternity benefit insurance, and unemployment insurance.

There are over 500 thousand Albanian citizens in Italy who are direct beneficiaries of this agreement and about 4 thousand Italian citizens in Albania.

From 2005 until today, Albania has signed a series of agreements in the field of social insurance, among which are with Turkey, Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, North Macedonia, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Romania, Kosovo, with the Confederation of Switzerland and Croatia.

Agreements with Montenegro and Bulgaria are also expected to enter into force. While the agreements with Poland and Serbia are in process, countries such as Slovenia, Spain, Denmark, Moldova, and the United Arab Emirates have expressed their agreement for the start of negotiations. The government is in the advanced process of obtaining an agreement for the start of negotiations with France.