Albania aiming for June EU petition

TIRANA (AFP) – Albania is determined to submit its candidacy for European Union membership in June despite the global economic crisis and uncertainty about EU enlargement, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said.

In an interview with AFP, Berisha said an agreement “in principle” has been reached with the Czech EU president for Albania to apply for membership before its June 28 parliamentary elections.

“We agreed on submitting the request,” he said, noting that 96 percent of Albanians back their once-communist nation’s EU ambitions.EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has told Albanian news media that smooth conduct of the elections, in line with European criteria, is essential before Tirana can present its candidacy.

It would then be up to the 27 incumbent EU member states to unanimously approve the candidacy. Negotiations with the European Commission – the bloc’s executive arm – would follow.Albania is already on the threshold of joining NATO next month – a landmark that Berisha called “the biggest event for my country after independence” from the Ottoman Empire in 1912.

Since the demise of communism in the early 1990s, all elections in Albania – a predominantly Muslim nation of 3.6 million that remains one of Europe’s poorest countries – have been disputed and marred by incidents.

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