Tirane – Albania has agreed to issue emigrants born abroad with new birth certificates, identity cards and passports where the birthplace is written in the local language of the country of birth rather than in Albanian.

Greek authorities have repeatedly asked Albania to use Greek toponyms for Albanian passport-holders in Greece.

The measure affects the children of Albanian emigrants who were born in Greece but have Albanian citizenship, who were often turned back at Greek border crossings after their documents were deemed invalid.

The row with Greece arose after Albania issued new biometric passports in 2009, necessary for its citizen to travel without visas in the EU’s Schengen zone.

Following diplomatic negotiations with Athens, Tirana agreed in May to reissue passports that met the requirements of the Greek authorities.

In January 2015, emigrants seeking to obtain new passports or IDs will also see a rise in the price of the documents.

If they obtain the passport in Albania, they will pay 7,500 lek (€53.5), up from the current price of 6500 lek (46.5 euro). If they obtain it abroad in a consular office will pay 130 euro, up from the current price of 108 euro.

Both Albania and Greece are members of NATO, and Greece supports Albania’s EU integration. However, the relationship between the two countries has been often fraught.

For decades after the Second World War, the border between Greece and Albania was closed, marking an ideological and military frontier border between NATO and the Communist bloc.

More recently, the presence of large numbers of Albanians working in Greece has been a cause of friction.

According to the latest Greek census, Albanian emigrants account for 52.7 per cent of total foreign population in the country, or 478,043 residents./balkaninsight/