TIRANA, May 31 – In a meeting with Prime Minister Edi Rama, his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz said the country has openly declared its support for the opening of Albania’s accession negotiations, but cannot give an exact time for the official green light.
“I cannot give you a concrete answer. There are some EU countries that find it hard to take this decision, due to internal matters. Albania has made progress with the reforms. I cannot tell you when this decision will be taken, but Albania is on the right track and the European Commission has made it clear,”
Kurz made these comments on the occasion of Rama’s visit in Austria, where he went to address the increasing flux of illegal immigrants who enter the country from Greece with the purpose of reaching EU member states.
Rama sought assistance from the EU in confronting this issue, for which Kurz expressed his country’s willingness to help and even mentioned financial support from the EU side.
“Traffickers try to take people from Greece to Europe through Albania. We need to fight this phenomenon. The number of refugees is increasing and we need to treat this problem before it takes the proportions of 2015. Albania needs and deserves our support,” Kurz said.
Overall, Kurz said Austria supports all Western Balkan countries’ efforts to join the European Union through their efforts to realize the reforms set by the EU, however, he could not say whether negotiations will open in June, as the country expects.
Meanwhile, Rama has began a diplomatic campaign aimed to convince skeptic countries to give Albania the OK to open accession negotiations as soon as possible.
