Albania still poor compared to EU

TIRANA, Nov 10 – While Albania is working to move towards integration into the European Union, it still has much to do to fight poverty and reach European standards.
According to recent data from the government budget, it concludes that Albanians’ per capita income is only 22 percent of the average EU citizen.
Albania signed the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement two years ago, which is to be soon ratified by all EU member countries.
Following that, the country may apply for candidate status and it then must fulfill thousands of pages of obligations to reach European standards.
Albania has had, on average, a six percent annual GDP growth but that has hardly helped it reach European standards.
It is still considered as among the poorest countries in Europe, surpassing only Moldova and Georgia.