EU foreign policy chief warns Albania of difficult reforms in the bloc's
membership path
[April 08, 2025]
By LLAZAR SEMINI
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The European Union ’s foreign policy chief on
Tuesday hailed Albania's “ambitious” agenda to close full membership
negotiations in two years and also urged the country's political parties
to support difficult reforms ahead.
Kaja Kallas, who is on a regional tour, was in the Albanian capital,
Tirana, to meet with the country’s leaders and assure them that the
country's future is in the bloc.
“Albania has an ambitious agenda to close EU negotiations in the next
two years,” Kallas said at a joint news conference with Albanian Prime
Minister Edi Rama. “It’s vital to sustain the high pace of reforms. And
I also understand that the reforms are always quite difficult.”
Still, “Albania’s future is in the European Union,” she said.
The EU decided in 2020 it would start full membership negotiations with
Albania, and talks began last October on how the country aligns with the
EU’s stance on issues such as the rule of law, the functioning of
democratic institutions and tackling corruption.
The Western Balkans countries — Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro,
North Macedonia and Serbia — are at different stages in their
applications for EU membership. They have been frustrated by the slow
pace of progress, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
encouraged Europe’s leaders to push for the six to join the bloc.
“Your decision to fully implement EU sanctions against Russia alongside
your political, military and humanitarian support to Ukraine
demonstrates your commitment to our shared values,” said Kallas.
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Rama has said he hopes to complete the negotiating process with the
EU by 2027 and for Albania to become a bloc member by 2030.
“We will not rest until we step into the door of the European Union,
and sit around the same table that the European Union does,” Rama
said.
Albania is part of the EU’s growth plan and it is expected to
receive more than 920 million euros ($1 billion) over the next
decade.
On Tuesday, Albania also signed with the European Investment Bank a
90 million-euro ($98 million) agreement to reconstruct the railway
between the port of Durres and Rrogozhine, which Kallas said would
“serve as a critical route ... between member states in NATO, for
military mobility in Southeast Europe.”
“This is extremely important in the current security environment,”
she said.
Albania holds parliamentary elections May 11 in which Rama's
governing leftist Socialist Party has put EU membership as the goal
of the governing program. The conservative opposition accuses the
Socialists of corruption and being unable to take the country ahead.
Kallas earlier visited Montenegro and ends her tour with a visit to
Bosnia later Tuesday.
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