Greece has withdrawn the reserve for the Apostle Seal to Albania with immediate effect.
The Apostle Seal is a kind of legalization that a state authority makes to public documents by making it available to other states. According to the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEPJ), this step facilitates the procedures for obtaining documents and significantly reduces the costs for Albanian citizens.The withdrawal of the reserve for the Apostille Stamp has a positive practical impact, mainly for Albanian citizens living and working in Greece, facilitating and expediting the procedures for obtaining and using documents issued by Albanian and Greek institutions, as well as significantly reducing the costs of issuance of these documents.
Only during 2017, the costs of the Albanian citizens, due to the application of the Apostille Seal by the Greek authorities reached the value of 6.7 million of euros.
This decision of the Greek government constitutes a fulfilled commitment within the bilateral dialogue between Albania and Greece on issues that have been pending for a long time.
"In addition to the real impact on the daily lives of citizens, the withdrawal of the reserve for the Apostille Seal, now from all EU member states, creates other opportunities for providing modern consular services to our citizens living in Greece," reads the communication distributed by MEPJ.