Is Merkel avoiding Albania?

TIRANA, Aug. 18 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make a trip to some Balkan countries next week starting with Croatia and then Serbia and Montenegro.
But not Albania.
Merkel has pledged she will visit Tirana as Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s office has reported after his presence in some meetings of top European officials.
Still, with a lack of actual visits, one could wonder why there are no visits from top European leaders to Albania.
The last and probably only one was that of the Hungarian Prime Minister a few months ago, before his country ended the European Union presidency.
EU top official Jose Manuel Barroso cancelled his trip to the country while it was involved in an electoral conflict, a very bad sign that EU officials tried to downplay.
Albania has not had any top European official since it held the 2009 parliamentary elections.
Albania has applied for the EU candidate status but it already had a negative response last year and very likely the same this year. The main Copenhagen criteria is not fulfilled; and in this context, one could think that Merkel’s visits to the other western Balkan countries is a sign that Albania should first behave itself and think of its future before trying to become a EU member country, or even hope for EU official visits.
That does not mean to say that the country is isolated in the international arena but just to remind the government and the opposition political actors that they need to put on a different face, image for the country.