Opposition Calls For EU Candidacy Move

TIRANA, July 13 – The Albanian opposition insists the country should immediately ask for EU candidacy status in September.
Socialist leader Edi Rama said that Europe’s enlargement should continue despite negative voices coming from different countries, or the negative answer from the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
Rama said it was not necessary to expect the completion of the Stabilization and Association Agreement the country signed two years ago before passing to the request on the candidacy status.
Rama added that the difficult economic situation in the Balkans could soon turn into a heavy burden to bear for the local governments.
He said if Europe extended its hand to these countries that would be the right move to keep them abreast of democratic developments.
He took for comparison Serbia and its difficult transition to a more democratic society, and also the good example of Macedonia, saved from Europe’s hand by its candidacy status.
In Kosovo, Europe should also play a significant role so that poverty, unemployment and other issues were not badly exploited for other ethnic purposes.
Rama criticized all performances of the government in post-communist Albania, calling them ‘miserable.’
But he said the people were united about the country’s integrating processes in the EU and NATO. Politics, Rama added, has been to blame for the creation of an image to the world that the country was divided.
If Macedonia received its candidacy status at a difficult time, if Serbia received historic support from Europe, Albania should not be penalized simply because it creates no problems, said Rama, urging Brussels to reconsider, again, the integration process.
“Albania has been the most reliable factor of stability in the region,” he said.
His call, however, seems not to have the full support from the government, saying that the country has much to do to fulfill certain criteria needed before asking for the candidacy status.