Hungary praises Albania’s progress on path to integration
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Albania is making spectacular progress on the road to integration during Hungary’s EU presidency, which shows the entire Western Balkans that there is hope for accession, the foreign minister said on Thursday.
The foreign ministry cited Péter Szijjártó telling a joint press conference with Adea Pirdeni, Albania’s minister of state for public administration and anti-corruption, that the world was going through a decidedly dangerous period, with the increasing danger of the escalation of the war in Ukraine.
He added that the most dangerous two months of recent years were only just beginning and would last until the inauguration of the US President-elect Donald Trump.
Szijjártó said the security and economic situation of the European Union had weakened significantly, so new dynamism was needed. This new force and freshness could come from the ambitious countries of the Western Balkans that want to join it, he added.
“So speeding up EU enlargement is a real European interest, which fully coincides with Hungary’s national interests because peace, freedom and stability in our neighbourhood, in the Western Balkans, is in our fundamental interest,” he said.
“It is a very important objective of our responsible neighbourhood policy,” he said.
Accession is great. However, these countries do need to fulfil the Copenhagen criteria, and then there is the little “veto” issue which our dear Politicians have highlighted (hint: nobody wants to be held to ransom by Albania, and “Hungary is our example” may sound foreboding for some).
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/glossary/accession-criteria-copenhagen-criteria.html