TIRANA – Albania is expected to get the recommendation for opening of the EU accession negotiations, said to Deutsche Welle Radio MEP Eduard Kukan.
According to preliminary information of the European Commission’s Progress Report due on 17 April, Albania and Macedonia will get recommendations for opening of the EU accession negotiations.
Kukan, a member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Committee on Cooperation with the Western Balkans, told DW that he believes that the two countries have made substantial progress on the way toward the EU.
According to Kukan, the European Commission appreciates that Albania is moving ahead with fulfilment of five key five priorities-reform of the public administration, judicial reform, fight against corruption and organized crime and protection of the human rights.
In early this year, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said that if Albania keeps this pace on the way of reforms, the Commission will give the recommendation for opening of the EU membership negotiations within the first six-month period of 2018. “And it seems this will happen”, said Kukan to Deutsche Welle.