EU ambassadors agree Albania should be EU candidate: source
(BRUSSELS) - European Union nations on Wednesday agreed to back Albania's bid to become an official EU candidate nation, a diplomatic source said.
Ambassadors of the 27 EU nations said the candidacy should be handed over to the European Commission, a major step forward for the small southern nation, according to the source.
A formal decision must yet be made by EU foreign ministers who will hold two days of talks in Brussels from Monday.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Wednesday that it was "already high time" the move was made, after meeting with Albanian Foreign Minister Ilir Meta.
Also his country's deputy prime minister, Meta promised Albania would advance on the road to reforms.
Albania formally applied for EU membership in April, weeks after joining the western military alliance NATO.
The Balkan former communist state, once notorious for secrecy, a gangster culture and corruption, thus made the first small step down the road towards joining the bloc.
If it does become an official candidate state -- thereby joining Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia -- it will face a series of convergence tests over a period of years.
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Better not
It’s a very racist way of expressing the thoughts of EU members. I’m an Albanian and I wish that we never will be a member of EU or so called “big boys club” (Germany, France and …). How you can judge the people of my country just because of behavior of some countrymen’s. You can call Germans-Nazi or others with different names. At least we never occupied or discriminated other nations.
It’s a very sad comment that describe how EU is constructed.