EU Council of Ministers

The decision to grant Albania candidate status for membership was announced by the EU's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule on Tuesday.

"Albania congratulations on candidate status just agreed by ministers: acknowledgement of reform efforts, encouragement for more," Fule wrote on Twitter.

According to the survey by the Albanian Institute for International Studies, AIIS, 77.1 per cent of Albanians back the country’s integration into the European Union, compared to 85 per cent in 2013.

The figure, which comes from the survey published on Tuesday, is the lowest since AIIS first conducted the opinion poll in 2006.

In a progress report issued on Wednesday, the European Commission said Albania has continued to implement and consolidate EU-related reform measures, in particular those relating to candidate status.

Lithuania passed a key hurdle to adopting the euro on Wednesday, winning the backing of the European Commission to become the 19th state to use the single currency from next year.
     
The European Union's executive praised the Baltic state's "long-standing support for prudent fiscal policies and economic reforms."       

Germany's leader has given a cautious thumbs-up to Albania's application to obtain EU candidate status, while declining to commit Germany one way or the other ahead of an important report.

“We treat countries on the EU path based on the reports coming from the European Commission,” Chancellor Merkel told a press conference in Berlin held with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Rama will hold talks with German Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, the speaker of the German parliament and the head of the Christian Democratic Union’s parliamentary group.

Rama is also expected to meet the Deputy Chancellor and Economy Minister, Sigmar Garbiel.

ATHENS/BELGRADE - Evangelos Venizelos, Foreign Minister of Greece as the current chair of the EU Council of Ministers, stated that he has come to Belgrade to bring the message of encouragement and support to the country's further EU integration and internal reforms.