Albania awards medal to Priebe

TIRANA, Oct. 13 – Albanian President Alfred Moisiu on Friday awarded the Medal of Gratitude to Reinhardt Priebe, director of the Office for Western Balkans in the EU Enlargement Commission. Mr. Priebe received the Medal of Gratitude in recognition of “his contribution to the important process of negotiations between the Albanian government and the European Commission up to the signing of the Stabilization and Association Agreement.” Albania signed the pre-entry Stabilization and Association Agreement on June 12 in Luxembourg. It provides for more intense political and economic consultations between the EU and Tirana, though no formal date has been given to Albania for starting membership talks. All EU member countries must ratify the agreement before Albania can request to start membership talks.
Priebe visited the country at the end of his five-year term at the post. The European official appealed to the Albanian officials and political groups to join forces and make the membership process “a priority on which all your energy should be focused.” “Fulfilling the basic criteria for EU membership and the technical demands are a great challenge. It is impossible to envisage how much time will be needed to fulfill these requirements,” Priebe said after meeting Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
The EU has urged Albania to push ahead with its reform agenda, singling out the need for improvements in public sector governance, media freedom, property restitution and minority rights. The bloc has also stressed that the country, with a 3.2 million population, should make more efforts to combat corruption and organized crime, and fully establish the rule of law.