Brussels, 13/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Greek Presidency is to work on drafting a common position on granting Albania, at the end of June, candidate status for accession to the EU, the Greek foreign minister, Evangelos Venizelos, announced on Tuesday 13 May.
Reiterating that his country had always held a positive position on this status, Venizelos added that “as rotating Presidency, we must participate in preparing, at European level, a common, unanimous position”. He had earlier pointed out that one of Greece's “priority challenges” was to ensure that Tirana gets this status under the Greek Presidency.
“I see no obstacles to a decision on candidate status for Albania in June”, explained Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle, following the Stabilisation and Association Council. “I firmly believe that the country has the ability to tackle the challenges of European integration”, he added. The heads of state and government of the EU may agree on granting this status at the European Council of 26-27 June.
Venizelos also stressed the need to continue with the agenda of reforms, with concrete results. He emphasised the importance of the rule of law, the judicial plank and the fight against corruption and organised crime. Füle called upon Tirana to continue to build on the progress already made and to “consolidate and intensify the pace of the reforms, with solid and convincing results in the priority areas identified to obtain candidate status”.
The Association Council noted that the interim report of the Commission on Albania concluded that the country had adopted key judicial, public administration and parliamentary reform measures “identified as necessary for the granting of candidate status”. “The reform of the judicial system remains a key challenge for Albania's EU integration process”, the Council stressed. Füle went on to state that the government and opposition should work “together, in a spirit of moderation and of constructive dialogue”. (CG)