Albania to Apply for EU Candidate Status

Brussels_ The Speaker of the Albanian Parliament, Jozefina Topalli, said in Brussels on Tuesday that her country would apply for EU candidate status “very soon”.

“I hope that in the first half of the next decade we will be members of the EU community,” Topalli said at a joint meeting of the European Parliament and representatives of the parliaments of the Western Balkan countries.

Tirana officials have come under pressure, especially from opposition politicians, to push forward the country's European agenda and apply for candidate status.

The leader of the main opposition party, Edi Rama, said recently that Albania “should apply for candidate status by this September.”

Representatives of the Albanian government until now have not been clear about their plans, and Topalli’s statement was the first explicit reference to a timeframe to come from the party in power.

Addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday, Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso said “we are closely working with the Albanian authorities to make this possible. I cannot commit myself to a deadline because, as I said to Prime Minister Berisha recently, quality is more important than timing.”