BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN ALBANIA AND IRELAND

The Republic of Ireland has an area of 70,282 km2 and a population of around 5 million. The country’s capital is Dublin with a population of about 1 million. The first official language is Irish, although English is used everywhere. About 92% of the population is Catholic. The National Holiday is January 21, 1919.

Ireland was officially declared a republic in 1949. Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Communities (EC), the predecessor of the European Union, in 1973. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Irish government and Northern Ireland Executive have co-operated on a number of policy areas under the North/South Ministerial Council created by the Agreement.

One of Europe’s major financial hubs is centred on Dublin. Ireland ranks among the top ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita. A developed country, Ireland’s quality of life is ranked amongst the highest in the world, and the country performs well in several national performance including healthcare, economic freedom and freedom of the press.

Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a founding member of the Council of Europe and the OECD. The Irish government has followed a policy of military neutrality through non-alignment since immediately prior to World War II and the country is consequently not a member of NATO.

The most important political moment in Ireland during 2020 was the early elections on 8 February. None of the parties secured enough seats to win a majority that could form the government alone. The new Irish government received the vote of confidence in the country’s parliament, on 27.06.2020, about 4 months after the general parliamentary elections. The new Irish Cabinet will consist of a three-party coalition: Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens, with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin holding the post of Prime Minister (Taoiseach) until December 2022; under the agreement between the coalition parties, Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar will take over as prime minister.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

The relations between the two countries are mostly developed in the framework of the multilateral diplomacy and there have been an exchange of a limited number of visits. We appreciate the inter-parliamentary cooperation already established between the two countries and support the intensification of contacts between the two parliaments. Both countries conduct political consultations and the last diplomatic consultations took place on June 5, 2019, in Dublin. Ireland has provided a financial assistance to Albania in order to overcome the disastrous consequences of the earthquake on 26 November 2019 (300.000 Euro).

Ireland has been in the group of those EU member states that have always supported the EU enlargement process towards the countries of the Western Balkans. Ireland has supported the position of the European Commission that Albania has fulfilled the measure of reforms that enable the holding of the IGC with the EU. She also supported the opening of negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia as soon as possible.

The two countries have signed:  a) Agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion between the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania and the Government of Ireland, signed on 16.10.2009, entered into force on 12.7.2011; b) Technical cooperation agreement between INSTAT and the Central Bureau of Statistics of Ireland (CSO), signed in Geneva, on 17.6.2015.

Albania and Ireland cooperate closely in the framework of international organizations where they are members, including mutual support for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council (Ireland for the period 2021/2022, Albania for the period 2022/2023).

Economic cooperation between the two countries still has untapped potential in areas such as tourism, agro-industry, agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, information technology services, computer hardware and software, etc.