Albania urged to increase work on integration

TIRANA, March 13 – Albania has applied for the European Union candidate status since 2009 and it has got two negative responses.
It is unclear whether it will get a positive answer this year when Brussels produces its annual progress report in October. But EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele made it clear earlier this month that everything is clear with Tirana: it should work on the 12 key recommendations set by the bloc.
That was also stressed recently by the EU’s Ambassador to Tirana Ettore Sequi.
He considered the Conference of Member State parliaments held in Tirana “an expression of the fundamentals of the Union and Enlargement policy- peace and prosperity through dialogue and cooperation.”
He was clear in saying that “the European perspective has set in motion important changes.” But he also added that “it is also noticeable that sometimes the societies remain divided and only by keeping our energies firmly on the Region’s EU perspective, can we banish the risk of new instability.” Despite the crisis in the EU he insisted that “Such times of crisis have made the seriousness of the Union towards the region even more evident.”
There have been good signs of cooperation among the ever-squabbling political groupings since November. Jointly voting for the new ombudsman and work on the electoral reform and the administrative court to be passed soon are some of them which Albanians and also the international partners may clearly notice.
That is not enough, though, as there is much more needed to fulfill the 12 recommendations in time ahead of the October annual progress report from Brussels.