“The candidate status is kind of antidepressant for societies needing hope at a time when they are not fully ready to become part of EU or start negotiations,” said Prime Minister Edi Rama.
TIRANA, June 19 – With few days to go before EU leaders make a decision on Albania’s candidate status, Prime Minister Edi Rama who has been lobbying skeptical EU members in the past few weeks, has described the granting of the candidate status as an antidepressant for societies such as Albania aspiring to join the EU.
Speaking in Berlin this week at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on what the EU means to Albania, the Prime Minister of the Socialist Party-led government said “the candidate status is kind of antidepressant for societies needing hope at a time when they are not fully ready to become part of the EU or start negotiations.”
The Prime Minister said Albania deserved the EU candidate status last December when EU leaders postponed their decision for June 2014 to watch progress on corruption and organized crime.
“We have passed the test although I believe that Albania deserved the candidate status last December. Failure to get the candidate status has not brought anything good either to Albania, the region but even to Europe or the general process of European progress,” said Rama.
In a visit to Albania in early June, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said “I can without any reservation, beyond any doubt, confirm the recommendation of the European Commission to grant Albania candidate status.”
In its latest report on Albania’s progress, the European Commission said “Albania has continued to implement and consolidate its EU-related reform measures, in particular those relating to candidate status. There has been continued political will to act decisively in the prevention and fight against corruption and structural reforms testify to an all-encompassing approach including a wide range of institutions.”
EU leaders are expected to make a decision on Albania’s candidate status on June 27. The EU Council has denied Albania the candidate status three times.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo remain the only EU potential candidates in the Western Balkans region.
