Brussels, 17/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - In the view of President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, Albania can obtain accession candidate status before the end of the year.
“I think that, in principle, Albania can obtain candidate status this year but this still requires some effort”, he stated at a press conference with Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama on 17 September. “The coming weeks will be crucial if Albania wants to reach this goal, (in other words) candidate status this year”, he added, stating that the report on Albania's progress towards closer alignment with the EU - a report expected on 16 October - will take into account action on fighting organised crime and corruption.
“I encouraged the government to invest great effort in this direction because the steps that you will now take are crucial” for obtaining the status, Barroso added. He also called for structural reforms in the economic domain. He recalled that “Albania has already made progress towards this objective, obtaining solid reform results over the last 12 months”.
“We hope to have candidate status as quickly as possible”, said Rama. “We must do our work to be a member of this family - not in a century's time but in a reasonable timeframe”, he said the previous day during his meeting with President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz (our translation throughout). He also underlined the importance of cooperating with the Albanian opposition, with the goal of EU candidate status in mind. (CG/transl.fl)