EU calls on Albania to make more efforts for candidate status

The European Union (EU) and Greece urged Albania on Wednesday to push ahead wide-ranging reforms ahead of the EU’s decision on whether to grant the Balkan state candidate status to the bloc.

Launching the six-month presidency of the European Union by neighbouring Greece, the EU’s Ambassador Ettore Sequi said a decision on Albania’s candidate status, which has been rejected three times, will be taken in June.

“It is therefore of the utmost importance to keep the dialogue with the EU alive on a range of relevant issues, not least the economy, rule of law, the protection of human rights and the overall enlargement agenda,” Sequi told a news conference.