Albania is getting closer to join the European Union

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that Albania is on the right track towards joining the European Union.

This came in a joint press conference held by the President of the European Commission with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in the capital, Tirana.

Von der Leyen confirmed that Albania’s path towards European Union membership is going very well at the present time and that the matter has become real.

She said on Monday, “the expansion of the European Union is our top priority because we want our partners and neighbors to join and complete our union, and it’s also in our interest because it will give our union weight, influence and the ability to work, and it will make Europe stronger, bolder and bigger in a rapidly changing world, and Albania has achieved a lot indeed, it’s moving smoothly towards its goal”.

She added, “As we continue to work on the path towards accession, we are already building our common future, so we should start doing this immediately to make your country ready for membership, but also to create new trade opportunities between us and to bring our economies closer together… We started this with an economic and investment plan worth 30 billion Euros, and it’s providing its services quickly, as more than half of the funding has already been mobilized after 3 years, and in Albania, the plan has already succeeded in mobilizing 1.4 billion Euros, and there are great projects such as the Vierza hydroelectric power station or the railway line leading to the European Union via… Montenegro, on the 10th Corridor, and last year, we completed our investment plan with a large support package in the energy sector”.

The President of the European Commission highlighted the importance of the new growth plan for the Western Balkans region, saying, “We’re heading towards a new phase of work… This plan has the potential, if we implement it correctly, to double the size of your economy during this decade and advance the wheel of growth and convergence… The principle it’s that in some specific areas, you will have access to the single market, and for this reason, reforms are necessary and reforms accompanied by investment, this opens the door to the single market of the Western Balkan countries”.