Albania continues lobbying for status in EU capitals

TIRANA, April 7 – Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati held a visit to Germany to meet with his host counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier in what appears to be a campaign by the Albanian government to lobby capitals in western Europe to move forward Albania’s EU membership bid.
Germany has been of particular focus, as Berlin was also visited last week by Prime Minister Edi Rama, ahead of the Brussels decision in June on Albania’s candidate status application.
In another move, Integration Minister Klajda Gjosha headed to Greece for an official visit aimed at gaining support for their country to obtain the status of an EU candidate in June 2014. Greece holds the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2014.
After three failures in a row, Tirana hopes very much to get the status this June. But it will likely face a lot of scrutiny after while some powerful western European countries, Germany, France, Britain, Netherlands and Denmark, said late last year they want to see tangible results from Tirana in the fight against corruption and organized crime.
Last week Rama went to Germany to meet with Angela Merkel and then to Brussels to meet with Stefan Fule, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy.
Fule welcomed Albania’s continued commitment to EU-related reforms and praised the actions taken by the government in the fight against organized crime and corruption. He also encouraged Albania to consolidate and intensify the reform momentum, particularly as regards the rule of law and called for solid and convincing results in view of informing the council ahead of its decision on whether to grant the candidate status.
“I am convinced that the country has the capacity to tackle its European integration challenges with determination”, the commissioner said.
Candidate status, once granted, will be recognition of the work of all concerne, he added, stressing the importance of the high level dialogue on the key priorities.
Fule underlined that all the country’s vital energies, including those of civil society, should be used to move forward the EU agenda.