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Albania backed for EU candidate status

04 June 2014, 22:31 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - The EU's executive Wednesday urged the bloc's leaders to approve Albania as an official candidate for membership at a summit in Brussels at the end of the month.

The European Commission said Albania had made sufficient progress in fighting corruption and organised crime to win a green light to line up with the other nations knocking at the door of the 28-member club.

Aspiring European Union entrants must meet key democratic benchmarks before being considered candidates to join the EU, a process which then takes many years as the nations bring their legislation in line with others in the bloc.

The Commission said a report released Wednesday on formerly communist Albania's crackdown on crime and its judicial reforms showed positive progress and "will serve as a basis ... to decide on granting Albania candidate status at the European Council later this month."

Should the 28 EU leaders open the door to NATO member Albania, which initially applied to join the union in 2009, it will be among six countries recognised as candidates to join the 500-million-strong bloc, including Montenegro, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Iceland.

Croatia was the latest to join, becoming the bloc's 28th member in July last year.

Macedonia is bogged down in a row over its name with neighbouring Greece, Iceland has decided to put its application on hold, and Kosovo still needs to win recognition from five EU states.

Public support for enlargement is on the wane across the bloc though many in eastern Europe remain keen to join.

At the June 27 summit, EU leaders are also set to finalise the signature of an association agreement with Ukraine as well as with Georgia and Moldova.


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